{"id":649283,"date":"2026-10-09T06:04:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T06:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/649283\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T06:04:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T06:04:12","slug":"home-heating-oil-surges-58-as-energy-bill-hikes-wipe-out-budget-gains-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/649283\/","title":{"rendered":"Home heating oil surges 58% as energy bill hikes wipe out budget gains \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Families face bills of \u20ac1,600 to heat their homes this winter as soaring energy prices threaten to wipe out workers\u2019 budget tax gains.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Home heating oil prices rose by 58.6 per cent in September when compared with the same month last year, new figures from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/central-statistics-office\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/central-statistics-office\/\">Central Statistics Office<\/a> (CSO) released on Thursday show.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Sharp rises in energy prices sparked by the US-Iran war helped drive up the cost of living by 4.1 per in the 12 months to September, the highest increase in two years, according to the CSO.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The cost of filling a 1,000 litre domestic oil tank now varies between \u20ac1,500 and \u20ac1,600, according to Daragh Cassidy, head of communications at price comparison website, Bonkers.ie.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIt\u2019s gone up \u20ac250 since the start of August and \u20ac400 since June and July,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Around 700,000 homes across the Republic use this oil as their primary source of heating their homes. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">News of the increase comes as householders prepare for the winter, when the need for home heating is at its greatest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Home heating oil prices rose by 7.2 per cent from August to September alone, the CSO noted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Rises in heating oil, natural gas and motor fuel costs could wipe out most of what workers will gain through tax cuts and other benefits announced this week in Budget 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Those gains will simply \u201chelp people to stand still\u201d, the consumer advocate remarked of the measures announced by Minister for Finance, Simon Harris, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The US-Iran war, a resulting squeeze on global refining capacity and a weakening in the value of the euro against the dollar, are combining to drive up the price of the kerosene used by Irish people to heat their homes, Cassidy explained.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Motorists also continued to deal with sharp price increases on forecourts, according to CSO.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/your-money\/2026\/10\/06\/big-policy-change-sees-carbon-tax-reversed-to-ease-home-heating-fuel-costs\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fuel excise cuts extended to February as carbon tax is slashed to ease home heating costsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Petrol prices were 14 per cent higher in September than a year earlier, while diesel rose by 22 per cent. This was against a backdrop of a renewal in air strikes by the US on Iran and the absence of a deal that would fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz and ease trade blockages. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Diesel cost \u20ac2.06 a litre on average in the Republic last month while petrol cost \u20ac1.96 a litre.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The CSO does not publish national average prices for home heating oil.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIn the month of September we saw significant price movements for fuel and home heating oil,\u201d Anthony Dawson, a statistician in the CSO\u2019s prices division acknowledged.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The CSO\u2019s Consumer Price Index, which measures the cost of living in the Republic, rose 4.1 per cent year-on-year in September, the office confirmed on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The most significant increases in the 12 months to September were in housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, Dawson noted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Dermot Daly, EY Ireland consumer products and retail lead, said the jump in energy prices in the latest CSO data is \u201cparticularly noteworthy\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cConsumers have shown resilience \u2013 household spending is likely to grow 2.5 per cent after inflation this year \u2013 but many will have to prioritise essential purchases while taking a more considered approach to discretionary spending,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cAs we move closer to the important Christmas trading period, retailers will be hoping that consumer spending remains resilient despite ongoing cost pressures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The CSO\u2019s Dawson confirmed that the 4.1 per cent rise in the cost of living was the highest since September 2024, when the increase was also 4.1 per cent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Government this week increased the social welfare fuel allowance by \u20ac5 to \u20ac43 a week in Budget 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">It also cut <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/carbon-tax\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/carbon-tax\/\">carbon taxes<\/a> levied on home heating oil to \u20ac48.50 a tonne for the current Government\u2019s remaining term in office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Families face bills of \u20ac1,600 to heat their homes this winter as soaring energy prices threaten to wipe&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5168,72,14787,171749,61,11829,60],"class_list":["post-649283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-budget","tag-business","tag-central-statistics-office","tag-fuel-protests","tag-ie","tag-iran","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649283","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=649283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}