Fuel prices: ‘It’s affecting everything!’
The people of Cork and Ireland are at risk of going hungry if recent dramatic increases in the price of fuel are not addressed.
That’s according to Fine Gael Cllr John O'Sullivan who has asked Cork County Council to call for the reduction or elimination of excise duties on diesel and petrol.
Speaking at Monday’s full meeting of Cork County Council, the Bandon-Kinsale councillor said that every effort possible must be made to bring prices down immediately.
He said: “It is affecting food production, it's affecting transport, it's affecting food prices in the shop, it's affecting everything.
“The one thing that will cause problems for the public is hunger and lack of food and the supply of food and that's where we are. It's back in the 1940s since we've been in a war scenario in Europe and it does behold the Government and everybody to try and reduce the cost to all the consumers.”
Fine Gael Cllr Marie O'Sullivan, who has run a café in Kinsale since 2007, said she has been forced to absorb three price increases from suppliers since last June, with another coming at the end of this month.
“It's inevitable that all businesses, especially in the hospitality industry, will have to put up their prices which we don't want to do after nearly two years of being closed,” she said.
Since Russia invaded the Ukraine on 24 February, fuel prices have skyrocketed globally, with Cork motorists reporting some of the highest in the country.
The Irish Government recently passed a bill that would cut excise duty by 20 cents a litre for petrol and 15 cents a litre on diesel.
However, the fuel price increase is having an even more severe impact specifically on agricultural contactors and hauliers, some of whom have seen their fuel costs increase by 100 per cent.
In light of this, elected members also asked Cork County Council to ask the Government to extend the section 664A exemption – which currently only applies to farmers – to farm and forestry contractors on their use of green diesel from 1 May.
Fine Gael Cllr Kevin Murphy said: “We have recently seen a reduction in some of the excise duties for diesel and petrol but the proposal going forward for the farming community is absolutely astounding.
“Green diesel has increased by about 60 or 70 per cent in the last two months alone. This is going to have a dreadful knock-on and believe you me, there's going to be massive increases coming in the next few months. If that's the case, then all deliveries, every single bit of transport is going to suffer immensely.”