Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 159: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the reason the price of motor fuel has been rising in the past number of days; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3650/09]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The Irish oil industry is fully privatised, liberalised and deregulated and there is no price control on petroleum products in Ireland. Prices at the pump reflect global market price (traded in dollars), Euro/Dollar fluctuations, refining costs, transportation costs, other operating costs, prevailing excise duty and VAT. Recent increases in pump prices may be attributable to a number of factors, including conflict in oil producing regions, the strengthening dollar and lower refinery outputs generally.

The Deputy may be aware that in response to concerns expressed by a number of commentators that the benefits of the decline in the wholesale price of oil were not being passed on to consumers, I requested the National Consumer Agency to undertake a survey into the underlying reasons as to why pump prices for petrol and diesel were not falling in line with the drop in the wholesale price of oil. As part of its work, the agency benchmarked movements in prices in Ireland against those in other EU countries and it examined the frequency and the timeliness in which changes in the wholesale price were being passed on to consumers. The agency's report on this matter was published on 19 December 2008. The report's overall finding was that, at national level, price changes for refined petroleum products are being passed on to consumers in a relatively timely fashion.

The agency did identify a range of gaps in the manner in which information on retail and diesel prices are collected and publicised. It is my intention to work in conjunction, with the National Consumer Agency and my colleague the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources to see how best these information gaps can be addressed.