Transport Minister Eamon Ryan expects cost of living supports like temporary cuts in excise for motorists to be continued past their current expiry date of February 28th.
Mr Ryan said that cost of living supports will be looked at again by the government before the end of February and he said that he “expects a number of them” to be retained.
The Green party leader was talking to reporters in an annual roundtable interview this Christmas.
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He said: “Michael McGrath (Finance Minister) will have the key decision on that.
“In my mind, firstly we will be helped by the fact that the price of oil and therefore transport fuels have significantly reduced.
“People will remember in the last few months, almost, you went to the forecourt and the price would be at €2.10, €2.15 a litre.
“Now when I look out it’s €1.60, €1.70 whatever, so it has dropped dramatically.
Mr Ryan added: “One of the important thing is we maintain an appropriate economic approach to this cost of living crisis so we can afford measures we have to take and in that economic approach you can’t just rely on corporate tax because that’s not a given so we need…and excise duty and the likes of those do give us a real broad base.
“We will have to look at that and see which ones can be or will be reintroduced.
“I expect a number of them will have to be because we have to make sure we have the money for social welfare, health and other budget needs.
“One of the things that might help us is we agreed last week to further measure to help the haulage industry.
“We have an €18million scheme that is targeted at the smaller haulage operators and that will kick in around March so if there is and I expect there will be a return of VAT, excise (and) other levies it will be compensate for by that measure.”
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