RECENT FUEL increases have added up to €10 monthly to the cost of running a modest family car, the Automobile Association (AA) has claimed.
“The bad news keeps coming and this is one of the biggest monthly rises in price that we have ever seen,” said AA director of policy Conor Faughnan.
The AA said that, in its latest survey of retail prices, the cost of petrol and diesel had surged upwards again in the past month.
A litre of petrol now costs 154.9 cent, up 7 per cent since December, while diesel increased by 6.2 per cent to an average of 153.1 cent per litre.
A car doing 12,000 miles annually at a fuel economy rate of 30 miles a gallon used 150 litres of fuel monthly. The increases meant a further €10 in costs for petrol users and €9.30 for diesel users.
Mr Faughnan said the VAT increase, which came into force on January 1st, was “a key part of the story” and had worsened the impact of rising international prices. The increased costs represented a massive blow, he added.
“But we should all remember that for the most part this has not happened because of international prices or because of the global financial situation,” Mr Faughnan added. “It has happened because our own Government is doing it to us.”
Mr Faughnan said people simply did not have the money to spare.
“Force them to spend it on fuel and they cannot spend it elsewhere in the economy.”
