The Government has an
deliberately timed the rise in petrol and diesel excise duty to coincide with the Dáil recess so it can avoid political scrutiny, Sinn Féin has argued.
After international fuel prices surged this spring, protests erupted nationwide, demanding the Government cut taxes to mitigate the cost to consumers.
The Government responded with a package of measures designed to cut the cost of living.
Fuel protests in April. Picture by: RollingNews.ie.However, reductions in fuel excise duty are due to expire on 1st September and Sinn Féin has called on the Government to extend the tax cut.
“Now we have a situation where the Government is deciding to make life harder for people by increasing the taxes on petrol and diesel on the 1st of September,” Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty told The Claire Byrne Show.
“So, that's going to push the price of diesel beyond €2; most pumps that I've seen coming up from Donegal this morning were charging about €1.95.
“An extra 10 cent is going to put it up beyond €2 and, obviously, the Government aren't finished there.
“They have five increases altogether between now and the 1st of December.”
Political pressure
Dáil Éireann is in recess until 16th September and Deputy Doherty believes that the increase kicks in before then to “avoid the political pressure” that comes from Dáil debates and questions.
It is, the Donegal TD believes, another sign that the Government has “really, really misread the public mood” on this issue.
“The question here now is for Government who's elected by Irish people the length and breadth of this state is that their responsibility is to stand up and protect people, to protect workers that are going about work and just trying to earn a decent day's living,” he said.
“Parents who are dropping their kids to school, people who live in rural communities who rely on their car.
“What the Government's decision now on the 1st of September is, is to make life harder for them.”
Deputy Doherty described Sinn Féin as having been “consistent” in arguing for reductions in excise duty and warned the Government the public favours an extension in the tax cut.
“Do we want protests? Absolutely not,” he said.
“When I was on the protests back in April, when I was standing there, with farmers, with contractors, with workers, nurses coming out from the hospital in their uniform, none of them wanted to be there.
“None of them will want to be there next week or next month either.
“The ball is firmly in the Government's court; it's Micheál Martin and Simon Harris that will decide whether there's a protest the length and breadth of the State or not.”
Main image: A split of a petrol pump and Pearse Doherty. Picture by: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin/Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie.
