Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions Dail Éireann — 2026-03-03 ============================================================ Peadar Tóibín (AON), Meath West The cost of filling a car with petrol at the moment is €100. It is €19 above what was just five years ago. Some 60% of the cost of a litre of diesel is now tax, and 65% of the cost of a litre of petrol is now tax. This breaks down as follows: 54 cent in excise; 2 cent on the National Oil Reserve Agency, NORA; 16 cent on carbon tax; 8 cent on better energy tax; and 32 cent on VAT. Out of the €1.73 price for a litre of petrol, €1.13 is now Government tax. The Government is taking the majority of the cost of a litre of petrol and diesel in tax. A €100 fill of a tank would actually cost €35 if it was not for the ever-increasing fuel taxes by this Government. These taxes are not progressive. They hurt low- and middle-income families the most, and they hurt those in regional and rural Ireland the most. In 2024, the Government took €4.1 billion in fuel taxes. That was the highest such figure ever, and it happened at the peak of the cost-of-living crisis. In 2024, carbon tax reached €1 billion for the first time. It is now the largest fuel tax in the country, and it is going to increase for every year up to 2030 no matter what the economic circumstance of the citizens of this country. The war in Iran will likely send the cost of fuel surging. Academics are saying that the price of petrol could increase by 70 cent to €2.44. Diesel could increase by 81 cent to €2.53. That would bring a full tank for petrol and diesel in this country above €150. These are eye-watering figures. This is already happening. On Friday, a fill of home heating oil cost about €1,000 in the State, and it has increased by about €150 in just four days. This should not be happening because the supply chain purchased this oil before the crisis in Iran. Again, according to academics, a fill of home heating oil could actually top out at €2,000 in this particular situation. Incredibly, the Government will be quids in from this increase in the price of fuel. Not only are families being price gouged, but the truth of the matter is that this Government is tax gouging in these circumstances. When the price of fuel increases in this country, the Government makes more in taxation on that increased price. That is an incredible situation. What I am proposing is that the Government looks at the carbon taxes. We were told that carbon taxes were to change behaviour and that this was to move people away fossil fuels, and when we reached a certain price, people would then make that change. However, if the market is already reaching that price, surely the carbon tax is just punitive in relation to that. We were told that the carbon tax was about moving people into alternatives, such as sustainable transport or other ways of heating their homes. If they cannot do that, is a carbon tax not just punitive in that scenario? Will the Taoiseach scrap the carbon tax on petrol and diesel if the cost increases beyond current levels? --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-03/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:02+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-03-03