Simon Harris: Cuts to fuel taxes to ease energy shock
Simon Harris outlines emergency measures to cut fuel taxes amid a week of volatile global energy markets and rising oil price risks. He sets out tax cuts and extensions designed to ease pressure on households and businesses while urging diplomacy to avoid a wider energy crisis.
Context: volatile energy markets
Simon Harris recalled this week’s energy security briefing, noting how rapidly oil prices moved after the ceasefire announcement between President Trump and Iran. He warned that supply disruption and distribution problems this week underline how global events can quickly translate into domestic price shocks.
What was announced
Harris explained that the government is extending measures announced in March to July and enhancing them. He detailed specific tax reductions: petrol down by 27 cent per litre, diesel by 32 cent per litre, and marked gas oil by 7.4 cent per litre, plus a targeted package for users of green diesel.
Why it matters
Harris argued these measures will help households and businesses reliant on fuel and should moderate inflationary pressure. He stressed the link between energy prices and inflation, and said containing energy costs can also ease food and supermarket price rises.
Diplomacy and the risk ahead
While acknowledging no government can fully insulate people from global shocks, Harris urged use of the brief ceasefire window for dialogue and diplomacy. He warned that an energy crisis would extend beyond summer into winter if conflict escalates, with stark humanitarian and economic consequences.
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Can I just say, with everything that Taoiseach said, I mean in many ways that this week this week has reminded us of how volatile the world is because we were all at that meeting on energy security and that was only Tuesday and on Tuesday we were having a discussion where we were briefed on a country that was at a pretty pretty good, all other things being equal, a pretty good reserve built up of oil and we were seeing that day, you'll remember after the ceasefire announcement by President Trump and Iran, you were seeing oil prices drop by 17 to 20% and then within days oil prices beginning to creep back up and an issue where we had oil that couldn't even get to the forecourts and that's just been this week so there's huge huge volatility. The situation that we see tonight in relation to that region of the world is also extraordinarily concerning and I know all of us in the Irish government and I think all the European governments would really re-emphasize the importance of using that brief window of that two-week ceasefire to try and make progress because every conflict only gets resolved by dialogue and diplomacy and quite apart from the horrific humanitarian consequences of war, the economic consequences, the consequences to the global economy are stark. If we end up in an energy crisis and an energy conflict then that doesn't just run through the summer months but runs into the winter months as well. Look, we have to be honest, no government can take any action that would fully insulate people, we're very clear in that, we're very truthful in relation to that. However, the measures that we have taken on excise now I do believe will make a real difference. If you remember when we introduced the first package, roughly speaking I think diesel was at around 2.28 that day, it fell and fell quite significantly quite quickly, it's gone back up again I think 2.14, 2.17, 2.18 are prices we've been seeing in recent days but I do expect these measures to have a positive effect. It means in the round between the March announcement that we're extending out to July and the enhancement to that announcement tonight, we as a government will have cut taxes on petrol by 27 cent a litre, on diesel by 32 cent a litre and on marked gas oil by 7.4 cent a litre plus the very specific package for users of green diesel as well. So by any objective standard and that is a significant effort to try and assist everybody who is reliant on fuel to go about their life. Also I should say there's a direct correlation between energy prices and inflation and this package then also should hopefully have a positive impact in terms of trying to moderate inflation increases too because if you can somewhat suppress or contain energy prices that has a broader positive impact on inflation in the economy and therefore on food prices and supermarkets as an example.
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