Oil prices are now more than 50% higher than they were in July when the prospect of a resolution to the Iran conflict did not seem as distant as it does today.<\/p>\n
Many expected the White House would broker a deal well ahead of the US midterm elections.<\/p>\n
But now even US President Donald Trump concedes there is no chance of that, and the cost of a barrel has remained above $100 (\u20ac86.57) for a week.<\/p>\n
The elevated price, which is feeding through to the pumps in Ireland and elsewhere, presents a series of difficulties for the Irish Government.<\/p>\n
Diesel is above the \u20ac2 per litre threshold in many service stations with petrol not far behind.<\/p>\n
But there are a range of taxes on fuels which are due to be reinstated after they were temporarily cut earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Top of the list are relatively significant hikes facing motorists.<\/p>\n
The Coalition’s current plan is to increase tax on petrol by 27 cent per litre and diesel by 32 cent per litre.<\/p>\n
The rises would be introduced over four dates: 1 November, 1 December, 31 January and 28 February.<\/p>\n
These increases were due to be introduced from 1 September, but the Coalition paused the rises for two months.<\/p>\n
However, tax reductions affect the Government’s coffers and have implications for the Budget which is due to be announced on 6 October.<\/p>\n
Last month, the Government said: “The estimated cost of the temporary excise reductions on fuels from 1 September until the end of the phased restoration on 28 February 2027 is \u20ac407m.”<\/p>\n
Another issue is that the Carbon Tax is due to increase on 14 October and will push up prices for coal, peat and natural gas.<\/p>\n
That rise has been postponed since May.<\/p>\n
The money from the tax is ringfenced for tackling energy poverty and retrofitting homes.<\/p>\n
So, if the increase is paused again, the Government will have to find the money for those projects from somewhere else.<\/p>\n
The Cabinet also temporarily removed a levy of 2 cent per litre on petrol and diesel which pays for the National Oil Reserve Agency. That is also due to revert on 1 November.<\/p>\n
Sources in Government Buildings said ministers will be “agile” when it comes to responding to higher oil prices.<\/p>\n
The reality is that the Government faces a series of difficult decisions in the weeks ahead.<\/p>\n
If oil prices remain at these elevated levels, it will become a political nightmare for the Coalition to push ahead with increases in taxes on fuel.<\/p>\n
Few will be surprised if they are stalled again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oil prices are now more than 50% higher than they were in July when the prospect of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60],"class_list":["post-625167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}