Fuels for Ireland has accused the Government of “just making it up as they go along”, after they announced that excise duty cuts would be phased out from November.
The cuts to fuel duty were due to expire on 1st September, but the Government announced an extension last week.
A spokesperson said there had been yet another “change in the global situation” and promised the Government would be “agile and rule nothing out”.
On Newstalk Breakfast, Fuels for Ireland CEO Kevin McPartlan accused the Government of ‘picking a date out of the air’.
“This is the latest date now they've come up with - but there's no basis for that,” he said.
“There's no analysis that I'm aware of that says that they feel that the commodity prices are likely to have been reduced at the end of November compared to where they are now.
“They haven't spoken to us.”
Filling a car up with fuel in County Donegal. Picture by: Alamy.com. Mr McPartlan described this as policymaking based on “hope and guesswork rather than information and analysis”.
While he hoped there would be a lasting peace agreement between the United States and Iran by November, Mr McPartlan said no one could say for certain what would happen.
“I would love to think that that would be the case and I hope that it is the case,” he said.
“But I don't think that there's any reliable basis on which to ground that.
“This is the Government doing what it said in March we should be avoiding, which is another knee-jerk reaction.
“In fact, since you and I last spoke last Friday, just before the announcement came that the Government was going to pause the excise duty increase, prices have actually gone up further on international commodity markets.”
Mr McPartlan continued that the Government fuel policies are particularly detrimental to businesses in border counties.
“The first attack on Tehran happened on the 28th of February,” he said.
“On the 27th of February, we were paying 30 cents a litre more for diesel in Ireland, in the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland.
“I know you're going to speak to [Sinn Féin TD for Donegal] Pearse Doherty shortly; in Pearse's constituency, you had four courts that closed because of that price differential.
“The reason that price differential was so high was because we were paying more tax in Ireland for our fuel than anywhere else in the European Union and a great deal more than in the UK.
“So, we have for too long considered the Irish motorist as an almost a bottomless pit of resources.”
Main image: Filling up a car at an unleaded petrol pump. Picture by: Alamy.com.
