The Government is “open” to providing cost-of-living supports against the backdrop of “unprecedented” global turmoil that may lead to dramatic price rises beyond the energy sector, a Fianna Fáil Minister has said.
The Coalition has been criticised in recent days over its response to a surge in motor fuel, gas and home-heating oil prices as a result of unrest in the Middle East following US–Israeli strikes on Iran and related attacks on the Gulf region in response.
Minister of State for European Affairs Thomas Byrne told RTÉ’s The Week in Politics that “it may well be that the Government will take action”, saying it would “look carefully at this”.
“Clearly prices have gone up. They may well go up dramatically again, and it won’t just be fuel and electricity, it could be food supplies etc,” he said.
“This is an extremely serious and probably unprecedented situation that we’re facing. When you look at the impact of the closure of the Straits of Hormuz across all walks of life, across all the world.”
The carbon tax increases slated for this year would go ahead, he indicated, as the proceeds fund the retrofitting of homes and provision of the fuel allowance.
He said the Coalition would “look at this over the next week or so [and] see how things develop,” adding it was “open to examining supports we could give”.
However, he downplayed the prospect of a measure like a VAT cut, which he suggested would not benefit people directly – rather allowing retailers and wholesalers to “pocket” the difference in prices themselves.
“The Government is entitled to have a few days to examine this, to see if this is temporary, it doesn’t look like it,” Byrne said.
“This is an unprecedented global situation, the likes of which we have never seen before, and the Government is entitled to see the extent of it [before acting].”