{"id":648805,"date":"2026-08-21T09:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T09:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/648805\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T09:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T09:36:09","slug":"pearse-doherty-says-there-will-be-further-fuel-protests-if-excise-duty-cuts-are-not-extended","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/648805\/","title":{"rendered":"Pearse Doherty says there will be further fuel protests if excise duty cuts are not extended"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n

LAST UPDATE
\n |
\n 1 hr ago\n <\/p>\n

SINN F\u00c9IN\u2019S PEARSE Doherty has said there will be further fuel protests if the government goes ahead with the\u00a0planned unwinding of fuel excise duty cuts.<\/p>\n

In April, the government increased temporary fuel excise cuts to 32c on a litre of diesel and 27c for petrol.<\/p>\n

However, before the summer break, it announced that a phased reversal of these cuts is planned for between 1 September and December.<\/p>\n

The party\u2019s spokesperson on finance, Pearse Doherty, remarked that \u201cpassing a financial resolution in the D\u00e1il is the only way to stop these increases going ahead\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said that McDonald has written to the Taoiseach asking him to \u201crecall the D\u00e1il to pass the financial resolution necessary to prevent the increases from taking effect\u201d.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time the party has called for the D\u00e1il to be recalled. Sinn F\u00e9in called for the D\u00e1il to be recalled from its Easter break over energy prices also, with the party calling for the D\u00e1il to be recalled during the summer in other years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fianna F\u00e1il TD\u00a0S\u00e9amus McGrath accused Sinn F\u00e9in of political opportunism but said that if the government decided to recall the D\u00e1il, he would partake, as would other party colleagues.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u2018I don\u2019t want to see protests\u2019<\/p>\n

Speaking on RT\u00c9\u2019s Morning Ireland, Doherty pointed to a surplus of nine billion<\/a> and remarked that extending to fuel subsidies to the end of the year would cost \u20ac120 million per month.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a responsibility on government to stand up and protect its citizens, not to make life harder for people,\u201d added Doherty.<\/p>\n

He added that if the planned unwinding of the excise duty cuts is not reversed, \u201cthere will be protests across this country\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ball is firmly in the government\u2019s court,\u201d said Doherty.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be Miche\u00e1l Martin and Simon Harris and his cabinet colleagues that will decide whether there will be protests across this country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to see them, but I will stand with people if the government refuse to listen.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI rightly believe that there will be protests if that is the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018These decisions can be stopped\u2019<\/p>\n

In an earlier statement, Doherty remarked that fuel prices have \u201crisen sharply in recent weeks\u201d, with diesel prices now averaging \u20ac1.92 per litre, up 19 cent in a month, while petrol has risen by nine cent to \u20ac1.84.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt precisely the moment when international factors are pushing fuel prices higher, Fianna F\u00e1il, Fine Gael and their Independents are planning to make matters worse,\u201d said Doherty.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe warned the government about this last July.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they voted against our amendments which would have stopped these increases going ahead and decided that the increases would begin while the D\u00e1il is in recess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin had previously accused Doherty and Sinn F\u00e9in of \u201cplaying politics\u201d with these amendments<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Doherty said that from 1 September, the cost of diesel will increase by 10 cent per litre and petrol by nine cent per litre, with the full reversal of excise duty cuts to come by December.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are government decisions and they can be stopped,\u201d said Doherty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government cannot control every movement in international oil prices, but it absolutely controls the taxes it imposes at the pump.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it would be \u201ccompletely wrong for Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael to deliberately make petrol and diesel more expensive at precisely the moment when prices are already rising sharply\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added that this will \u201chit workers and families who rely on their cars to get to work, bring their children to school and go about their daily lives\u201d.<\/p>\n

Doherty meanwhile said the fuel excise duty cuts reversal will \u201cincrease costs for farmers, hauliers, tradespeople, contractors and small businesses, with the risk that these additional costs will feed through into higher prices across the economy\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeptember is still more than a week away. There is time to change course,\u201d said Doherty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Taoiseach should recall the D\u00e1il for a day, pass the necessary financial resolution and stop these petrol and diesel price increases from going ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Independent Ireland leader Michael Collins last week called for the D\u00e1il to be recalled over the same issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIrish people have been taxed enough,\u201d said Collins this morning, reiterating his call for the D\u00e1il to be recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government needs to stop penny-pinching, put people first and give households and businesses some relief rather than piling more costs onto them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAST UPDATE | 1 hr ago SINN F\u00c9IN\u2019S PEARSE Doherty has said there will be further fuel protests…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,49927,274306,84726,18,4771,553,274307,169360,19,17,16594,5765,9649,22976,47,42492],"class_list":["post-648805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-dail","tag-dail-recall","tag-diesel","tag-eire","tag-fianna-fail","tag-fine-gael","tag-fuel-excise-duty-cuts","tag-fuel-prices","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mary-lou-mcdonald","tag-micheal-martin","tag-pearse-doherty","tag-petrol","tag-sinn-fein","tag-taoiseach"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117132826096646098","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648805","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=648805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}