'Comprehensive review' of fuel taxes needed

Vivienne Clarke

The Government needs to look at a comprehensive review of fuel taxes, a fuel body has said.

Kevin McPartlan of Fuels for Ireland has repeated a call for a comprehensive review of “all the taxation and compliance costs” on transport fuel and home heating oil that make the cost of such fuels in Ireland one of the highest in Europe.

While there was a need for an immediate intervention by the government, he agreed with comments by the Tánaiste on Wednesday who said there was a need to move away from knee-jerk responses.

“This is what we have been saying for a number of years now,” he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.

“We do need to move away from knee-jerk responses, and we need to look at a comprehensive review of all of the taxation and the compliance costs that go into making sure that Ireland has one of the highest fuel prices.

“If we think back to the last time there was this type of pressure, the immediate aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine, when prices were at levels that they're kind of hitting now.

"Since that time, the government has added 24 cent per litre in tax and compliance costs to the price of road transport fuel. So we think that, yes, we need that immediate action, but also we need a considered action.”

McPartlan said he was not saying that taxes should be cut on fuel permanently, but there was a need to look at what the government was trying to achieve from their taxation policy on fuel.

“We need to make sure that we're supporting the transition to renewable, sustainable energy. We need to make sure the government gets a fair take, but we need to ensure that it remains affordable.

“We're a small enough market. We don't get to dictate commodity price on a global basis. We're subject to what's happening on a global market.

"It's really rough at the moment. We know that means our customers are hurting.”