Further fuel protests cannot be discounted as hauliers are unable to sustain current diesel prices, the president of the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) has said.
Ger Hyland was speaking after meeting Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris in Dublin this morning, where the pair discussed potential fuel supports in next month’s Budget.
Speaking to RTÉ News, Mr Hyland said he had a “robust discussion” with Mr Harris where he was not “promised anything” but was given the impression that excise cuts on petrol and diesel may be extended beyond the date upon which they are currently due to be unwound on 1 November.
However, Mr Harris also told him that the Budget is yet to be written, and the continuation of fuel supports is still up for final decision.
The cuts were introduced in April following nationwide fuel protests after the outbreak of conflict in the Middle East sent fuel prices soaring.
Mr Hyland said hauliers would also need direct supports beyond the continuation of excise cuts, saying many businesses were unviable once diesel went beyond €1.90.
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The price in many forecourts is now moving beyond €2.10 and in some instances is heading towards €2.20.
The IRHA did not engage in the protests earlier this year, however when asked if his members may engage in protests, Mr Hyland responded: “Desperate times make for desperate people and prices of €2.10 are still too high for many people. They have nothing to lose”.
He said he would continue to engage with the department and the minister but added that “unless our industry is supported, our industry will die”.
Yesterday on his way into a Cabinet meeting, Mr Harris was asked about the restoration of excise on petrol and diesel.
He responded: “That may not be the prudent thing to do now if the current elevated prices continue. So we need to look at that.”
IRHA to continue talks with Government
The IRHA president said the association will continue negotiating with the Government, rather than protesting, for supports to assist hauliers with the rising cost of fuel.
Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One, Mr Hyland said the IRHA did not take part in April’s fuel protests because it “was in negotiating with the Government”.
“While we see a route through this, that’s where we will remain.
“While there was some of our members out protesting the last time, I can see exactly why and where they were coming from. Desperate times makes desperate people,” Mr Hyland said.
He added: “There is people in our industry today that will have to make a decision very shortly whether they’re going to park up their vehicles or whether they’re going to go into liquidation. It’s that serious.”
Mr Hyland the haulage industry becomes “unviable” when the price of fuel goes over €1.90.
“We have members today paying 50 to 60 cents a litre more for fuel than we were paying this time last year. We just can’t sustain it.
“We’re buying fuel today that we won’t see a return on for 60 to 90 days,” he said.
Sunday meeting ‘organised by fuel protesters’
Aontú TD Peadar Tóibín said his party will attend a meeting in Co Westmeath on Sunday “which has been organised by the fuel protesters”.
Mr Tóibín said his party will be attending the meeting in Moate where the “next steps on how to put pressure on the Government” will be discussed.
He said his party will be playing its part to ensure the Government “listen to the people that they are supposed to serve”.
Mr Tóibín said people across the country will not be able to heat their homes this winter.
He said his party is calling for the carbon tax on home heating oil to be scrapped.
Extending excise reductions ‘sensible’ approach, says Harris
Meanwhile, Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris has given the strongest indication yet that excise cuts on petrol and diesel – due to be unwound from 1 November – will instead remain in place.
Speaking at the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting, Mr Harris said extending the current reduction beyond November seemed to him to be a “sensible” and “prudent” approach.
He told his party colleagues how Government is examining a range of measures ahead of the Budget, including the future of excise reductions, the taxation of home-heating oil and gas, targeted supports and measures to help households transition to cheaper and more sustainable forms of energy.
Mr Harris told TDs and senators that the Budget must give households as much clarity and certainty as possible about the energy costs they will face over the coming winter months.
Fuels for Ireland CEO Kevin McPartlan tells RTÉ’s Six One News that the prospect of more fuel protests is ‘concerning’
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Families left ‘high and dry’ over home heating costs – SF
Removing carbon tax from home heating oil would reduce the cost of a 1,000 litre fill by €183, Sinn Féin has said.
The party’s finance spokesperson said that the party will bring forward legislation this evening demanding the Government takes this action.
Pearse Doherty said he had produced the legislation eight times since March and even though the Government has indicated it will provide some relief in the Budget on the price of home heating oil, there is no clarity on the nature of that relief.
“We’re going to keep putting the pressure on Government. We still don’t know what the Government’s going to do. Whether they’re going to take a little bit off, whether they’re going to take it all off, we do not know.
“But there’s no doubt about it, if it wasn’t for Sinn Féin consistently and continually raising this issue, then the Government would have ignored, as they have done for the last number of months, the plight of people who are trying to keep their homes warm.”
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland earlier, Mr Doherty said the Government has left families and workers high and dry, and they have done this solely because the tax on home heating oil is called a carbon tax.
He said he has spoken to people who have told him they have very little left in their oil tanks, or “that they’re going out to buy home heating oil in gallon drums because they can’t afford the fill”.
“They don’t care what you call the tax. All they know is that they are being penalised through the roof in terms of the price of it,” Mr Doherty said.
Unlike petrol or diesel, there is no EU legal requirement for minimum taxation on home heating oil, unlike petrol or diesel, he added.
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He said the Government also needs to introduce energy credits in the Budget on 6 October.
The party has been accused of “political theatre” over its proposal to remove the carbon tax from home heating fuel.
Fine Gael TD for Offaly John Clendennen said the Government must look at things “in the round” and “to be bringing this forward just a couple of weeks out from Budget 2027, it really is political theatre”.
Speaking on the same programme, he said that if Sinn Féin were serious about this today, “we’d have an alternative budget on the table and we’d be able to look at everything in the round”.
“Instead, we’re looking at an item in isolation,” he added.
