Commuters could end up spending €2,000 more every year just travelling to work

COMMUTERS could spend up to €2,000 more a year travelling to work in Dublin if petrol prices stay at current levels.

In figures released by the AA, the price of petrol is up 41% on this time last year to 209.9c a litre in most garages. Diesel is up 45% to 204.9c, costing drivers €750 and €640 more per year on average respectively.

Analysis by the Irish Daily Mail has found Dublin commuters could be particularly hard-hit as the cost of running a car skyrockets.

People driving a 1.6-litre engine petrol car from the commuter town of Ashbourne to work in the city centre are likely to be paying out €640 more than last year.

Those further out of Dublin, in Carlow town, Dundalk and Portlaoise are likely to pay over €2,200 more in a year at current prices if they work full-time in the centre.

Those travelling in daily from Greystones, Co. Wicklow, are likely to be paying over €800 more a year.

The 2016 census showed that

45% is the amount diesel has gone up on last year

130,447 workers were travelling into Dublin every day.

Fuels for Ireland chief Kevin McPartlan said: ‘It is a huge impact. Petrol price rises are really hurting people, really hurting businesses, really hurting families. The Government can and should take immediate action.’

In a survey of drivers AA found that high fuel prices have impacted 42% of people’s weekly food shops, with 49% telling the insurer the costs have forced them to cut out family activities.

More than half of the 4,200 Irish motorists surveyed said the price spike has ‘significantly affected’ their lives.

Mr McPartlan said the Government is ‘out of touch’ and has to cut prices immediately.

He added: ‘The volumes of [fuel] sales have not dropped very significantly. So what does that tell you? That tells you that people are having to swallow this pain, swallow this extra expense. They have to do without other things in order to pay for this.’

The AA reported that around one in ten respondents have switched to walking or public transport because of rising prices at the pumps.

But, Mr McPartlan said that this is likely for shorter, local journeys and the idea that people can cut down on fuel is a ‘delusion’.

He added: ‘Fuel is an essential product. People don’t wake up, see what the price of fuel is and decide how many miles to drive that day.’

Mr McPartlan responded to the Irish Daily Mail’s findings: ‘If you are in Ashbourne and you are working in Dublin three days a week if you’re hybrid working or five days otherwise. If you live in Mallow and have to get to Cork you have the same type of thing. If your kids need to get to school, if you are a business that has to deliver to customers – those things are not discretionary.’

Fuels for Ireland revealed this week that the Government is collecting up to 7 cent a litre of petrol and diesel more in tax this year than last year, which he described as ‘unconscionable’.

He said the Government ‘underestimates the impact that giving that back to the consumer would have’. Those living in rural Ireland are also being ‘disproportionately hit’ by the rising costs, according to Mr McPartlan.

He added: ‘I am in Eamon Ryan’s constituency. If you live in Ranelagh, there are bus routes, you can walk, there’s cycle lanes and taxis.

‘If you live where my mother does in north Cork, the supermarket is 12km away, the post office is 12km away, her family is 15km away. People in rural Ireland don’t have the same options.

‘The Government think that people can wait another three of four months for action on this, it can’t wait.’