Cavan-Monaghan TD Matt Carthy has accused the government of being "out-of-touch" following the announcement there will be three price increases on fuel by the end of the year.
The UK government announced it would hold back on increasing excise duty on fuel for another year but, the Irish government are pushing ahead with two duty increases. The carbon tax is due to be increased in October, and this will be followed by another hike when diesel and petrol change to a bio-fuel mix around the end of the year. Deputy Carthy called on the Minister for Finance to cancel the plans for three separate tax hikes on petrol and diesel this year. He argued that the suggestion of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Ministers to make travel more expensive is crazy.