Households in Monaghan topping up their oil tanks for the winter are paying noticeably more than they were a week ago, even though Budget 2027 cut the carbon tax on home heating oil.

Figures from the price comparison website cheapestoil.ie, reported by the Anglo-Celt, show the average price of 500 litres of home heating oil in Monaghan rose from €808.49 on Tuesday, 6 October, the day of the budget, to €839.08 on Monday, 12 October. That is an increase of about €30 on a typical half-tank order in under a week. In Cavan the same order went from €808.87 to €842.92, slightly above the national average of €838.87.

"Not one bit" connected to the budget

Kieran Duffy of Duffy Oils in Castleblayney told the Anglo-Celt that the increases depend on changes in the world market and are "not one bit" affected by the fuel measures announced in the budget. He described those measures as a "small help" to people but "nowhere near" what is needed.

He said the price of a 1,000-litre fill jumped by €110 overnight last Friday. He also called for the carbon tax to be removed, saying farmers are being "slaughtered" by the rate on agricultural diesel.

Going into the winter, Mr Duffy said people are "without doubt worried" about costs, and many are choosing to buy smaller amounts of oil because the money is "not available". A spokesperson for Gibney Oil in Oldcastle, Co Meath, also pointed to world events, including the recent Houthi attack on Riyadh airport, as one of many factors pushing up the cost of oil, which they said customers have been "really struggling" with.

What the budget actually changed

In the budget, Minister for Finance Simon Harris cut the carbon tax on kerosene and natural gas back to its 2023 level of €48.50 per tonne of carbon dioxide. A planned increase due this month will not go ahead, and the Minister said the rate would "not increase again" for the lifetime of the Government. The Irish Times reported that the cut should take about €40 off a 900-litre tank of home heating oil, while the Anglo-Celt puts the saving at around €43 on a 1,000-litre fill.

The weekly Fuel Allowance is also going up, to €43 a week from 1 January. Cuts in excise duty on petrol and diesel, which were due to end this month, have been extended to the end of February.

The problem for households is that the tax saving is small compared with the swings in the underlying price of oil. A single overnight rise of €110 on a 1,000-litre fill, as described by Mr Duffy, is more than twice the budget saving on the same order.

What prices look like now

When Monaghan Brief checked cheapestoil.ie's Monaghan page on Tuesday evening, the site gave the average price of 1,000 litres in the county as €1,651.15, which it described as about the same as the national average. The cheapest Monaghan quote listed was €1,619 for 1,000 litres, €39 more than the cheapest quote anywhere in the country at that time, and the cheapest 500-litre quote was €814. Prices on the site change through the day, so anyone ordering should compare quotes on the day they buy.

People struggling with heating costs can check whether they qualify for the Fuel Allowance through the Department of Social Protection. Anyone whose home needs extra heating because of illness may also be able to get a heating supplement under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme.