{"id":531280,"date":"2026-06-12T08:33:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T08:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/531280\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T08:33:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T08:33:16","slug":"higher-income-irish-households-benefit-twice-as-much-from-fuel-supports-esri-finds-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/531280\/","title":{"rendered":"Higher-income Irish households benefit twice as much from fuel supports, ESRI finds \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Government measures to help households cope with the surge in energy prices<\/a> benefit those on higher incomes almost twice as much as those on lower incomes, according to a new report from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The report analyses the effect of two packages of measures introduced by the Government in March and April on household incomes as energy prices soared in response to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz<\/a> \u2013 a key shipping gateway for the world\u2019s oil.<\/p>\n

The measures considered include the reduction in excise duties on fuel, the suspension of the National Oil Reserve Agency levy, the extension of fuel allowance<\/a>, and the deferral of planned carbon tax<\/a> increases.<\/p>\n

The report establishes the measures are \u201cprogressive in relative terms\u201d, benefiting the lowest income households by 1.7 per cent of disposable income compared to 0.6 per cent for the highest income households.<\/p>\n

However, in absolute terms, it says higher-income households \u201cbenefit by almost twice as much as lower-income households\u201d, indicating that much of the \u20ac440 million cost of the package is \u201cdirected at high-income households\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis results from the untargeted nature of excise cuts: they lower prices for all consumers, with the largest benefits going to households that use more energy,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis poor targeting raises concerns about cost effectiveness, which are compounded by the fact that tax cuts erode the tax base, which is already vulnerable to volatile corporate tax receipts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report also notes that indirect tax cuts have proven \u201cpolitically difficult\u201d to undo in recent years, raising the prospect that the current cuts may be extended.<\/p>\n

The ESRI\u2019s analysis suggests the measures will ease energy inflation pressures on households \u201csomewhat in the short run\u201d, but says the \u201clargely untargeted nature\u201d of the measures means lower-income households are \u201cnot well insulated from the shock\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Energy crisis: Simon Harris floats one-off payments for heat pumps and efficient carsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

More generally, the report finds the Government\u2019s measures reduce the immediate energy cost increases by approximately half, but do not fully offset the \u201cregressive nature\u201d of energy inflation. <\/p>\n

\u201cCrucially, much of the benefit of these measures comes from broad-based tax reductions, which apply to all households regardless of need,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n

The report notes there have been \u201csubstantial price increases\u201d at fuel forecourts around Ireland, with average diesel and petrol prices exceeding \u20ac2 and \u20ac1.80 per litre respectively. Home heating oil prices rose by over 63 per cent year-on-year in March.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor home-heating oil and motor fuels, the average share of income spent on each commodity is larger for low-income families than high-income families,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n

Energy inflation is described as \u201chighly regressive\u201d, with households with the lowest income expected to face energy cost increases of 3 per cent of disposable income, compared to 1 per cent in the highest income households.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0One in seven families now in arrears averaging \u20ac511 on electricity bills, says regulatorOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In cash terms, estimated energy cost increases range from \u20ac15 per week for the lowest income households to \u20ac28 per week for the highest income households.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Government measures to help households cope with the surge in energy prices benefit those on higher incomes almost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[174],"tags":[79,140929,2190,179,18,35808,15912,38419,51907,19,17,168834],"class_list":["post-531280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-carbon-tax","tag-cost-of-living","tag-economy","tag-eire","tag-energy-costs","tag-energy-crisis","tag-esri","tag-fuel-allowance","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-strait-of-hormuz"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116736216698436940","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}