Currency to blame for fuel hikes

The weakening Euro is just one of the factors pushing up the price of fuel in Ireland.

July saw the biggest monthly increase in the cost of oil since February.

Escalating tensions in the Middle East, along with a drop in the Euro against the dollar and the pound are being blamed for the 8% price hike.

Power Trader at Bord Gais Energy, John Heffernan, explains how the rise will have a knock-on effect on consumers: "Well an knock-on effect on oil will feed through to the pumps and the big one is the state of the Euro versus major currency, especially the US dollar.

"We buy our coal and oil in US dollars and our gas in sterling, so if we're weakened versus those two then it'll increase in Euro prices."