CONSUMERS AND businesses have to put up with rising fuel prices instead of “whingeing” about them, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said yesterday.
Speaking after a meeting of EU finance ministers, he warned that “we have to adjust our expectations” and “modify our behaviour” in light of the fuel price increases, adding that the Government was examining the dependency on oil in Ireland.
He said Europe must “attend to the security of her own food supply” when it came to rising food costs. “Certainly we would support any CAP [Common Agricultural Policy] reform measures that make the production of food more efficient but you have to incentivise agriculture as well,” Mr Lenihan said.
EU finance ministers yesterday asked the European Commission to look at the problem of increased prices but the consensus at the Ecofin meeting was that tax policies should not be tampered with to deal with the increases.
As protests by hauliers, fishermen and farmers hit by price rises continue across Europe, Austria called for a tax on commodities speculation while Italy proposed a tax on oil companies which would be redistributed to sectors of the economy hit the worst.
But other member states were against these ideas. “There is no reason why we should take any tax measures to this end. We have to take into account long-term measures,” said Andrej Bajuk, finance minister of Slovenia, which holds the rotating EU presidency.
Asked about the fluctuation in oil prices and the effects on consumers and businesses, Mr Lenihan said: “That’s how the world works. That’s markets. If you have to pay more for a particular commodity that is the lifeblood of your economy and you can’t buy it from yourself, you have to buy it from someone else and then clearly there’s an economic message there.”
He added: “We can choose to ignore the message and whinge about it, of course . . . but that’s not going to sort out the economy’s problem.”
Other countries including Germany, Spain and The Netherlands opposed a French proposal for a suspension of value added tax on oil products, saying they were opposed to political intervention.
Ministers made recommendations to EU leaders, who will meet in Brussels on June 19th and 20th, to examine EU biofuels policies, help farmers to respond quicker to price fluctuations and help developing countries to address food supply problems.
Although Mr Lenihan said the Government was committed to the National Development Plan, which would see €184 billion spent between 2007 and 2013, he added: “I made it clear since my appointment there will have to be very tight control over current expenditure. Each individual item in the National Development Plan has to be subject to value for money.”
