Brendan Howlin
Ceist:11 Mr. Howlin asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will list all changes in the price of petrol to date this year; if he will estimate the price changes for 1992; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions Oral Answers. - Petrol Prices.
This year, up to 1 October 1991, when price control was ceased contemporaneously with the commencement of the Competition Act, 1991, the maximum permitted retail price of premium and unleaded petrol reduced by 2p per litre.
I propose to circulate in the Official Report a list of the individual changes permitted during that period. Since the ceasing of price control, I do not have official information on the price of petrol.
Any comment on petrol price changes in 1992 would be highly speculative because of possible changes in oil prices and in the value of the dollar. I have, however, already referred on a number of occasions to my expectation that the full benefits of competition should work through over time to the benefit of consumers.
What procedures, if any, has the Minister in train to monitor the price of petrol and ensure that the fluctuations bear a speedy relationship to the ups and downs in the open market price at Rotterdam?
The Director of Consumer Affairs launched a large scale survey, inter alia, into the retail prices being charged for petrol and diesel in filling stations. The survey commenced on 25 November 1991 and concluded on 6 December. It will take some time to collate the results of the exercise but when that is done the results will be made available to my Department. Approximately 1,300 stations were surveyed.
With regard to how the market place is operating, since I removed price control on petrol I was happy to see the headline in the Evening Press of 10 December —“Petrol plummets by 5p a gallon. Motorists have something to smile about as oil majors slug it out at the forecourts. Ending of Government statutory price controls spurs hot competition at the pumps”. It seems that the decision I took in this respect is the right one.
Whatever about the petrol companies slugging it out at the forecourts, they are not slugging it out in the four provinces of Ireland but in the capital city of Dublin. I would ask the Minister to ensure that the benefits of competition will work its way through in rural Ireland. I have no doubt that that will happen in Dublin. The Minister would want to be careful with regard to rural Ireland where motoring is far more essential and where public transport is not available. Those people should also get the benefit of the slugging out between petrol companies and the Minister should ensure that they are not asked to pay the cost to the petrol companies of their boxing match in Dublin.
I am conscious of that. A senior official of my Department spoke to the oil companies before I lifted the price control telling them precisely that. I do not have any desire to see a situation in which there would be competition in the cities but where prices might rise to an unjustifiable extent in rural Ireland.