Job loss warning as soaring fuel costs hit firms in Mayo

Councillors in Mayo are calling on the Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien to take urgent action to tackle fuel costs, which have soared in recent weeks due to the US-Israeli war with Iran. 

Cllr Chris Maxwell asked colleagues at the council's recent monthly meeting to support a motion requesting the minister's immediate intervention in the ongoing fuel crisis.

Stating that 60% of fuel costs go directly to the government in taxes, Cllr Maxwell said he knows of a local transport company that is now incurring additional costs of thousands of euro per week to fuel its fleet.

“Fuel has to be tackled because it is all about jobs. Every employer is trying to do their best but this fuel disaster will cripple them. There is one thing the minister and government could do to support commercial hauliers, bus operators and farmers for the length of this crisis - if they won’t reduce the taxes, let them at least allow these people go on green diesel, which will automatically drop fuel down 40c a litre.” 

Cllr Neil Cruise supported the call, saying: “We have to do something urgently about the price of fuel. It is at the centre of everything we do, and the current situation will cause huge inflation.” 

Cllr John O’Malley said the minister “can easily remove the carbon and other taxes”, adding: “There are carbon taxes on everything, and it is always the rural people that get hit because there are no buses or trains passing our door, so we have to drive, and are really being hammered. There will be a lot of jobs gone with fuel at the current price because once the price is passed on, the business dies.” 

Cllr Gerry Coyle said Minister O’Brien needed to enact emergency legislation, adding that it was not the service station owners who are putting up the price of fuel but the suppliers. 

“It’s not the people on the ground who are responsible, they are barely surviving. Garages make maybe seven to eight cents per litre and it is certainly not them who are price gouging.” 

Cllr Harry Barrett declared: “We need a solution. We are in an emergency war situation and ordinary families are suffering. We live in a democracy; we control our own destiny and the powers-that-be can intervene on fuel prices so I ask the minister to control fuel prices.” 

It was agreed to write to the minister demanding his intervention.

• Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.