‘It’s hurting rural Ireland’ - Ring

Ring calls for excise duty to be slashed as fuel prices hit record highs


Oisín McGovern

TD MICHAEL Ring has called on the Government to take urgent action to reduce the price of diesel and petrol as prices in Mayo hit an-all time high.
The Mayo News can reveal that prices of both petrol and diesel have soared to unprecedented levels around the county, with all but two filling stations selling diesel for over €2.00 a litre last weekend.
Speaking to The Mayo News yesterday evening (Monday) Deputy Ring called for taxes and excise duty on fuel to be slashed immediately in order to bring prices down. The long-serving TD also called for The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to investigate price-fixing at filling stations around the country.
“More needs to be done, but also the competition authority needs to move in as well,” he told this newspaper.
“I accept that diesel is at an all-time high, the Government have to step in and do something, but they will also have to step in and do some monitoring of price-fixing around the country as well.
“There certainly is [price fixing going on in Mayo], because there is no way that on the first of May there was no price increase, and yet all the petrol pumps around the country put it up.”
Deputy Ring added that the soaring cost of fuel is hurting rural dwellers in particular.
“This is having an awful affect on rural Ireland, because we need our car for everything,” he stated. “Whatever they have to do, they need to do it. The consumer out there needs help and they want it now. We can’t go on with these prices of fuel.”

Filling-station survey
Over the course of Saturday and Sunday, a Mayo News’s team of reporters surveyed petrol and diesel prices in every single filling station the county.
Each station we surveyed recorded their highest prices since our first fuel survey in 2010, when the cheapest diesel in Mayo was sold for €119.9 per litre in Gallagher’s, Charlestown.
The highest prices in the entire county were recorded in Maxol on the Newport Road in Westport, where petrol retailed for €2.22.9 a litre while diesel was €2.11.9.
Filling a 50-litre tank of petrol at this station would cost €111.45, according to these figures.
Mitchell’s Emo in Moygownagh was the only filling station in Mayo where diesel and petrol cost less than €2.00 a litre.

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Pick up a copy of this week’s Mayo News to see how much petrol and diesel costs in your area