A Cavan filling station owner is warning that many border fuel service stations will go to the wall now that the government has increased excise duty on petrol and diesel. While the Irish government has restored the full increase on fuel excise on this side of the border, the UK government has decided to postpone their excise increase.
That means filling stations on this side of the border will pass on the increase by way of adding 5 cents to the price of a litre of petrol and 4 cents to the price of diesel. Another excise duty increase of 5 cents for petrol and 4 cents for diesel is expected in August. The carbon tax is increased in October and by the end of the year as fuel is changing to a biofuel mix, there will be costs involved which will be passed onto the consumer.
Consumer journalist Charlie Weston told the Joe Finnegan Show that drivers in the Republic of Ireland will have to pay possibly 15 cents more for petrol and 12 cents more for a litre of diesel by the end of the year. Phillip Kiernan of Kiernan's Texaco says the hikes mean Ireland will have the highest fuel prices in Europe and will create what people in his trade call "border tourism".
The 390 filling stations along the border in Cavan. Monaghan, Leitrim, Louth and Donegal must vote with their feet he said.
