Petrol to hit €3 a litre, predicts Carlow service station owner

THE PRICE of petrol is likely to top €3 a litre, according to a local petrol station owner.

Martin McSorley, who owns six petrol stations in Ireland, including the Drive service station in Leighlinbridge, told The Nationalist that there is no end in sight to rising petrol prices.

“We don’t see this ending anytime soon,” Martin said, and he predicted that the price of fuel would soon go over €3 a litre. “It’s not just what people put in their car that’s going to be affected. The longer this goes on, the more things will be affected.

“You’re going to start seeing prices in the shop go up as well,” Martin added, as suppliers deal with rising fuel costs.

The government voted on a tax rebate scheme for hauliers, a double fuel allowance payment and a reduction in excise duty yesterday (Monday), measures meant to cut fuel prices. These measures are set to be announced today (Tuesday), although the government has made clear they will only be in place for a few weeks.

When asked what the government could do to lower the price of fuel, Martin said that cutting excise duty wouldn’t solve this crisis. Such interventions would only have a temporary effect, he believes, as the price of fuel is increasing so much from day to day.

Martin said that his petrol stations are currently only breaking even on petrol and diesel to try and keep the price of petrol as low as possible. “I don’t have the solution,” Martin said.

Martin is a representative for the Irish Petrol Retailers Association (IPRA). “I went up and met the minister,” he said. “I didn’t go up and say ‘this is the solution’ because what they could announce today might be no good in two days’ time.” 

In Ireland, all service stations buy their fuel from Dublin Port. Martin showed the going price of diesel and petrol for 20 March, the day we spoke to him. That day the price of diesel was set to rise by 7c compared to the day before. Due to the fast-moving nature of the conflict in the Middle East, Martin said that the price of fuel can go drastically up or down by the hour. The fuel market closes at 11pm each day and that sets the price of purchase for fuel the next day.

“You don’t know what price you are going to get that night. You don’t know what Donald Trump is going to do and he has a huge impact on it,” Martin explained.

Martin said that his petrol stations are feeling squeezed as local suppliers have started to raise their prices to compensate for the increasing cost of fuel. “To get our bins emptied, they’re now adding a 6% surcharge for the truck to come here. Small suppliers out there are saying ‘my fuel bill is going up by 25% to 30% – I have to pass the cost on’.” 

Staff across the petrol stations that Martin owns have reported receiving more abuse since fuel prices began rising two weeks ago.

“People are coming in and videoing staff and putting it on social media,” Martin said. “Without a doubt, staff are facing more abuse. That’s why we’ve been trying to educate ministers and educate the media as to what’s really going on.”