Diesel costs rising 'nearly on hourly basis' - Hauliers

Hauliers are calling for emergency supports to help them with the rising price of fuel linked to the war in Iran.

The Irish Road Hauliers Association (IRHA) has warned that diesel prices are likely to go beyond €2 per litre.

Speaking to RTÉ News at One, Ger Hyland, President IRHA, said that since the weekend, the price of diesel is rising "nearly on an hourly basis at this stage".

He added, "it's [price] gone out of control".

Mr Hyland said hauliers are contacting the organisation saying they cannot get supply for "two or three days" and they cannot get a price for that supply "until the morning of the fill".

He said that if hauliers are paying more for fuel, that will "absolutely" be passed on to consumers.

"We have no choice, we're being taxed out of existence," he said.

Mr Hyland described as "phenomenal" the amount of Government-generated tax that hauliers have been hit with since January this year.

"The road tolls have increased, our minimum wage has increased which has an effect on every wage level up along, we have the auto-[pension]enrollment, and if that wasn't bad enough the Government put six cent on a litre of diesel," he said.

He said the Government was "taking over 60% of the price on a litre of diesel" in direct taxes.

He called for the carbon tax to be suspended "immediately," especially for the road haulage sector. "Because everything that you wear from the shoes on your feet to the Corn Flakes on your table, everything, is delivered on the back of a truck, and it's going to have a huge inflationary effect."

He said hauliers were not "making money" this year following the extra costs they have incurred since January, "and this coming in on top of it is going to tip a lot of them over the edge".

Mr Hyland said the industry had been calling for the Government for years to examine Ireland's fuel importers because of "the way the price structure was".

"The Government needs to wake up here, they're asleep at the wheel," he said.

The President of the Irish Creamery Milk Supplier Association, Denis Drennan, said that his association was "inundated" with calls from farmers complaining about "flagrant" price-gouging and price-jacking.

Mr Drennan said that there were instances of farmers who had received calls on Monday informing them that quotations for fuel they had received the previous Friday were now to be disregarded and that they could expect to pay 25% more than had been originally quoted.

He said that people were infuriated as they knew perfectly well that the suppliers had themselves not paid the new higher 'war' prices and were merely using the outbreak of hostilities as an opportunity to ‘gouge’ their customers.

Taoiseach warns against energy price gouging

The Taoiseach has said that no one should take advantage of the global uncertainty to hike prices on home heating oil and motor fuel.

Micheál Martin told the Dáil that the Government will keep everything under review in terms of support measures for households.

He pledged to look at the issue in "the broader sense" but would not pull the rug from the funding generated by the carbon tax.

That tax is given back to the people in fuel poverty payments, to farmers, and it funds the retrofitting of homes, he said.

Mr Martin said he believes it should be three to four weeks before any petrol and diesel prices rise.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said there had already been massive fuel hikes in home heating oil and gave the example of an elderly woman in Wexford who has seen the price of oil for her home almost double.

There is also a rise of around 10 cent on the litre at the fuel pumps, she said.

Ms McDonald said the Government is being passive and called on them to drop the plan to increase the carbon tax in the coming weeks.

"You can't do nothing as these price shocks hit home," Ms McDonald said.

Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik said people were at breaking point because of the cost of living crisis.

She said the crisis has been turbocharged by global instability but also by the Government's policies.

What was happening was price gouging, she said, and called on the Government to act.

Mr Martin said the Coalition had acted with both once-off cost of living payments as well as permanent measures such as hot school meals and free schoolbooks.

Economist warns food prices could increase

It comes as Irish consumers could see the price of food products on shelves increase due to a shortage of fertiliser coming through the Strait of Hormuz which was declared closed as a result of the Iran conflict.

This has effectively stopped 20% of global oil and gas supplies.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Dr Emma Howard, economist at Technological University Dublin, said the reduction of oil coming through the Strait of Hormuz will affect supply and that alone will result in higher prices.

Oil prices have shot up from $72 (€62) per barrel to $84 (€72) since the attacks began, with the surge in gas prices increasing more dramatically.

Before the conflict, gas prices on Friday were just above €30 per megawatt hour, but they were trading at €60 per megawatt hour as of yesterday.

Dr Howard said that all products will begin to see an increase in prices as so many other resources travel through the strait, such as fertiliser.

She said: "There's a couple of different things for suppliers to worry about. One is they need to factor in the higher cost that they're facing for buying oil and gas at the moment.

"But secondly, they need to factor in the risk and the uncertainty."

Dr Howard added: "As well as the oil and gas going through there, 33% of the world's fertilisers go through that shipping route.

"So, if you think of the knock-on effect on crops and the further knock-on impact on animal agriculture, that is again probably going to feed through to higher food prices.

"Again, the extent of that depends on ... how long the conflict lasts for. And obviously, it could just be a spike in prices if this ends soon," she said.

"But if this is prolonged, we're going to see a prolonged and persistent and a good spike in inflation."

Dr Howard said the European eurozone inflation unexpectedly increased yesterday, adding that "we're already seeing the Iran conflict casting its shadow and the flash estimates for February inflation in Ireland that is at about 2.4%"

"Consumers are probably feeling this in their pockets already," Dr Howard said.

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On Government supports to offset the increase, she said that cost of living packages were introduced following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

"Those one-off measures were repeated three budgets in a row. And the Government were already spending and pumping a lot of money into an economy that was very strong and resilient.

"And all that did was further increase inflation overall," Dr Howard said.

She said any supports need to be "very properly targeted" because "there's a small minority who will need supports".

However, she said "overall we have a strong economy, we've had real wage growth for the last year and a half, so those people on the upper half of the income distribution can well absorb these price increases".