Fuel prices and price gouging
Deputy Moynihan asked why petrol prices remained so high despite lower oil prices and suggested examining the causes over time. The Minister said the Government had already cut excise and would ask his Department to work with the relevant Department on the matter.
There have been many discussions in the House about the cost of fuel and the way it is impacting on society and on the challenges many families are facing. I would point to two statistics. In 2008, the price of oil was €187 a barrel and the price at the pumps was €1.30 a litre for petrol. Today, it is €107 a barrel and the price at the pumps is €2.11 a litre. Why is there such a difference, given it was exceptionally high back then and it was at what we would call a reasonable price today? Is there something the Government can do to examine this - for example, to take a number of years and see why the price of crude did not result in the enormous increase at the pumps that we are witnessing today?
Comment on this
I thank Deputy Moynihan for raising this matter. As he will be aware, in 2008, the price of oil was at a very low point because of the impact of the global financial crisis and other factors that meant the price was at a very low level. The House will be aware the Government has done an awful lot to reduce the price of fuel, and the excise reduction we put in place of 15 cent and 20 cent is the biggest excise rate reduction we have done in our modern economic history. What I will do, given the point the Deputy has raised, is to get my Department to work with the Department with responsibility for energy to put together a short note to explain the changes to which the Deputy has referred.