The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has called on the State to reduce its take of the price of every litre of fuel sold to help ease the impact of surging input costs on farmers.
ICMSA president Denis Drennan hit out at Government for taking a “wait and see” attitude on fuel costs, as he suggested that policymakers should replace any fuel taxes currently levied as a percentage of supplier prices with a flat-price-per-litre levy.
The reopening of markets on Monday morning signalled another price spike for fuel, with Brent crude oil topping $110/barrel after last week brought significant price rises for Irish consumers at forecourts.
Friday also saw agri contractors warn that green diesel prices were rising twice as quickly as regular road diesel.
Benefiting
“The fact of the matter is that the State is actually benefiting from the price surge caused by this war,” Drennan said on Monday.
“As internationally traded price goes up and the wholesale price goes up, then so does the price at the pump and so, quite shockingly, does the State’s very large proportionate take of that price.
“Obviously, Ireland can’t affect price at source, but we can affect price at the pump through the Government adjusting downwards its take and more or less trying to keep the price within an acceptable band of movement.”
The ICMSA leader hit out the “hypocrisy” of Government figures claiming to be worried about the fuel spike while the State’s coffers are swelling with tax revenues: “Either do something or say nothing.”
Last week also saw Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke state that he had approached the consumer watchdog to seek an investigation into public concerns of price gouging from fuel suppliers.
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