Country Living with Francis Farragher

ONE of the founding fathers of the United States, Benjamin Franklin, is credited with the famous saying back around 1789, that ‘in this world, nothing can be said to be certain – except death and taxes’.

Neither of them it seems can be avoided but the other day as I pulled up at my usual filling station to do the weekly fill, I couldn’t help but wonder, how the cost of a litre of petrol or diesel broke down, although I kind of knew what the answer would be.

The oil producers obviously have to get paid for their raw material essentially crude oil; the shippers have to get their cut for bringing the fuel around the world; the oil companies have to get their share storing and distributing the product; while the retailers have to get their return as well.

Curiosity led me to the AA [Automobile Association] website to discover, that based on a December, 2025, price breakdown on a litre of diesel selling at €1.73 per litre, if taxes were excluded, then the price we would have to pay at the pumps would be 69.34 cents.

Now, to go back to Mr. Franklin, I don’t for one minute expect that we have any chance of ever seeing the day where fuel can be purchased duty free, but what is quite shocking is the range of taxes that are loaded on under a number of different headings.

It starts off with excise duty [42.6 cents]; carbon tax [18.74c]; VAT [32.35c]; better energy [8c]; and a curious one called NORA [2c], which stands for National Oil Reserves Agency. In the end, the total taxes on a gallon of diesel worked out at €1.03 cents and for petrol the tax take was €1.13c, based on a petrol sales price of €1.74/litre.

The bad news doesn’t end there as from the start of this year, according to the Fuels of Ireland industry group, a tax under another fancy title – the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation [RTFO] – has now stuck on another 4c per litre, while an increase in the Better Energy level and VAT take will throw on another cent.

A comparison of fuel prices and tax takes on the product carried out by the UK’s RAC [the Irish equivalent of the AA] early last December in 15 European countries indicated that Ireland ‘topped the table’ in terms of prices at the pumps with only Denmark, Italy, Germany, France and Finland challenging our position of unenviable dominance.

Pictured: Government takes over 60% from every litre of petrol and diesel sold at the pumps.