Excise duty cuts on petrol and diesel since midnight

Cuts agreed by Government last night to reduce excise duty on petrol and diesel came into effect at midnight.

Excise duty on petrol was cut by 20 cent per litre, with a 15 cent per litre reduction on diesel and two cent per litre on green diesel.

This reduction will be in place until 31 August and will cost €320m.

However, the reduction appears to have made little impact at many pumps with reports of many garages putting up the price of their fuel in anticipation of the move.

Locally many motorists reported little change at the pumps, with prices actually going up since yesterday in some cases.

"Well that was a useless exercise by the government and as usual we the public get screwed joke of a country," commented one Meath Chronicle facebook follower this morning.

"The prices need to be checked and people need to vote with their feet or car, in this case, it should not be too hard to post the daily prices of the garages within 10 miles from where you live and the daily oil price on the markets should also be posted," said another.

Diesel at Apple Green at Navan Retail Park was up 1 cent at 8.30am this morning compared to the same time yesterday morning despite the 15 cent reduction, though petrol prices had decreased going from 198.8 to 184.8.

Diesel at Circle K on the Proudstown Road was at 199.9 yesterday morning at 6.30am and increased to 214.9 after the announcement and is now back to the same price as it was yesterday morning.

"This is an insult to the consumer as the excise duty reduction was to help reduce costs however it is evident that some fuel stations are taking advantage of the situation," said one motorist.

Another follower commented that the filling station had "put their diesel price up by 15c yesterday evening so when the the price cut happened at midnight it was 199.9c the same as yesterday morning".

"How are garages getting away with this?"

"Price gouging", said another

Meanwhile, many businesses have described the cut to excise duty as insufficient.

Coach tourism and transport operators said the viability of the sectors is now under direct threat.

Last night, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said the country is in the early days of dealing with the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine.

Ireland, he said, is not in a position to place a cap on rising fuel prices, as it is a country that must buy the majority of its own fuel.

Asked about the prospect of price regulation - which has been called for by the Opposition and touted by the EU - Mr Donohoe said it remained to be seen how that would be implemented for countries who by-and-large import most of their fuel, which was the case for Ireland.