Petrol excise rates rose by 7 cent per litre and diesel by 5 cent. Most people will only feel the effects in the coming weeks.
Incredibly, another rise is due on October 31 taking the total rise to 15 cent a litre of petrol and 10 cent for diesel.
The government should suspend these increases because many people are forced to travel by car to work, due to the absence of proper public transport.
Ireland has the second highest level of car dependency in the EU with 76% of people using the car as their main mode of transport on a typical day.
We need to get people out of cars to help stop climate change. But the neoliberal policy of pushing up prices does not work.
Petrol prices soared in the last few years but there was no evidence that it led to a decrease in car usage. Since 2019 car dependency has in fact increased.
The real answer is a proper public transport system. We need an immediate imposition of free public transport in our cities, combined with a big increase in investment.
We need to build up public transport infrastructure outside the cities and make it freely available.
We should reject the nonsense of the so-called Green Minister, Eamon Ryan, that free public transport will lead to ‘unnecessary journeys’.
It will however encourage people to leave cars behind rather than being stuck in the frequent traffic jams in our cities.
So, suspend these excise hikes, now.