I thank you, Sir, for allowing me raise this matter on the Adjournment and I thank the Minister for coming in to reply.
This issue attracted so little media attention that when it was brought to my notice by some oil distributors I wondered if it were true. The office of the Director of Consumer Affairs received complaints about the matter and people telephoned an RTÉ radio programme this morning about it. There has been a dramatic increase in the price of home heating oil and kerosene in the past eight weeks. A reduction of 1 penny or 2 pence in the price of a gallon of petrol would make headlines and oil companies would boast about reducing the price of their product to the consumer, industry and so on, but nobody seems to care when the hard pressed consumer has to pay £40 or £50 more for 1,000 litres of home heating oil.
The office of the Director of Consumer Affairs informed me that it does not have control over the matter, that oil companies can charge what they want for their product. I was informed the price is dictated by market forces, but it appears oil companies are operating a cartel to keep prices high. All oil companies have increased their prices.
Nobody seems able to tell me why these prices have suddenly risen. There have been vague suggestions that it is because of the situation in Iraq. There is also a suggestion that the costs are associated with the oil refinery at Whitegate where costs have risen resulting in dearer oil. I have also been told there is a new EU Directive on low sulphur diesel which has led to the increase. Does this mean another process has to be undertaken at Whitegate resulting in additional costs? If that is the case, why is only home heating oil and kerosene affected? Perhaps the Minister will clarify the matter for me.
If what happened with home heating oil was repeated with petrol and diesel it would have a dramatic impact on the costs associated with industry. I have been informed that the price of diesel has gone up recently by up to 25p per gallon and there was a smaller increase in the price of petrol of 1p per gallon this week. However, these do not appear to have attracted any attention. If this continues it could lead to job losses and a rise in inflation which our economy does not need.
I am not aware of any price increases occurring in our neighbouring European countries. If that is the case, we need to know why it is happening here in isolation. The Minister must take effective action to stem these increases.