The cost of filling a family car with petrol has soared to a record high of €100, the Irish Mirror can reveal.
The price for a litre of fuel has gone above €2.20 in some petrol stations for the first time ever this week.
The cost of diesel, which used to be far cheaper, is not far behind, with prices as high as €2.11 being reported on forecourts nationwide.
Read more: Petrol prices could soar to €2.10 in weeks
According to AA Ireland a litre of petrol cost €1.50 this time last year, with diesel at €1.40. It was only €1.20 for petrol a few months before that.
The shocking news for motorists comes as the latest figures show the Exchequer collected a high of over €300million in fuel taxes in April.
The Government collects a huge portion of what you pay at the pumps.
According to a breakdown from the industry group Fuels For Ireland, if a litre of petrol costs €2.20, the Government gets 41%, or 91c, from that. Labour has now called on the Government to invoke an unused clause in the Consumer Protection Act to put a freeze on prices.
Finance spokesman Ged Nash said the time has come for the coalition to intervene and help out workers.
He added: “Labour wants the Government to go further on VAT. Much of the record VAT haul must be put back into people’s pockets.
“The pressure being applied to the backs of working people is rapidly becoming unsustainable.
“The Government must get real and consider a cap on the price of petrol and diesel at the pumps through a maximum prices order.
“This is possible under Sections 61 to 63 of the Consumer Protection Act (2007) and is permissible when there is a serious disturbance to our economy.
“There is war in Europe. Exceptional times demand exceptional measures to protect our economy and living standards.
“The Labour Party is firmly on the record as saying that a mini-budget for 2022 was needed to give people certainty and to help protect living standards. These calls were ignored and now we are in a situation where working people are being left swinging in the wind.
“The recent reductions introduced on petrol and diesel prices are of themselves inadequate.
“We need to go further and faster and immediately meaningfully slash VAT on petrol and fuel to support workers and businesses.”
The rising prices have led many to blame petrol station owners.
But Fuels For Ireland chief Kevin McPartlan told the Irish Mirror it is the Government and big oil companies making the extra money.
He said: “It is the perfect storm.”
And he revealed a number of factors have combined to land us in the state we are in.
For a start, a lot of oil refineries had either locked down or slowed down during Covid. When demand came back more quickly than predicted, supply was down and so prices increased. Then came the Ukraine invasion.
One third of Europe’s oil and gas came from Russia at the time. Ireland moved away from Russian oil earlier, so paid more. More EU sanctions have been confirmed and are in the pipeline.
Also, the dollar is currently strong against the euro. Wholesale oil prices are in dollars, whereas retail are in euro.
Mr McPartlan added: “For the vast, vast bulk of fuel retailers, they don’t make any more on it.
“The only people who are making more money perhaps than oil traders, are the Government.”
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