Watchdog to investigate forecourt prices

FORECOURTS failing to pass on reductions in oil prices to motorists are being investigated as part of a consumer inquiry.

The Automobile Association (AA) urged the Government to put pressure on fuel prices by ensuring wholesalers reveal the cost of petrol before it hits the forecourts.

But as retailers defended costs, it emerged the National Consumer Agency (NCA) has begun an investigation into fuel costs.

It is surveying wholesale prices alongside those being charged to consumers.

“The NCA is currently carrying out those surveys and will continue to track prices over the coming weeks,” said its chief executive Ann Fitzgerald.

“With the global price of oil fluctuating, we want to ascertain whether oil companies are quickly passing on savings on oil prices internationally and if petrol and diesel pump operators are subsequently passing those savings on to consumers.”

The report on prices will be given to Tánaiste Mary Coughlan by mid-December.

The agency was critical of the fact fuel prices were only being reported to the Government every month as opposed to every week by retailers in other

European states. It made comparing date difficult, explained Ms Fitzgerald.

The investigation hopes to update the price data sharing system as well as examine the distributing process for fuel in Ireland.

But the AA yesterday hit out at the lack of transparency.

It made “perfect sense” to regularly publish a wholesale price table so motorists could see the true cost before paying at the pumps, stressed the AA’s public affairs manager Conor Faughnan.

“We’re fairly confident the service stations are not profiteering and are in fact only getting a couple of cent in every litre. But at the other end of the supply chain, there’s companies like BP that are making colossal profits,” he said.

“Publishing wholesale prices would be useful.”

Fuel retailers defended suggestions this week they were squeezing benefits from the recent plummet in crude oil costs.

Chief executive of the Topaz petrol station group, Danny Murray, said: “In Ireland we have to take the product in by ship and then store it. In most of continental Europe, they take it directly from the refinery and bring it to customers. We make less than one cent per litre on our bottom line.”

A European Commission survey last week found Irish consumers were paying over 20% more for fuel than their European neighbours.

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