Budget 2022: Fill up your car before fuel increases kick in at midnight

With carbon tax increases announced in Budget 2022 it will cost almost €1.50 more to fill up your car after midnight tonight.

Announcing an increase in carbon tax, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said it was necessary as “the world is burning”. 

While the price of petrol and diesel will go up from midnight tonight, gas, heating oil, coal and briquettes are set to rise in price from May.

The increase in carbon tax will be €7.50 per tonne. 

This will mean an approximate increase of 2c per litre for petrol and 2.5c for diesel

Petrol is set to cost an average €1.28 more to fill a tank, while for diesel it will cost an average €1.48 extra to fill a tank. 

Recently, the Department of Finance’s Tax Strategy Group estimated that the planned increase in the tax will add €1.48 to the cost of a 60-litre fill at the pumps.

Increases in the cost of other fuels will not kick in until May 2022, according to the documents published by the Department of Finance last week.

The fuel allowance will go up by €5 per week to €33, and more people will qualify as the criteria are to be changed.

Those on the basic supplementary welfare allowance will only have to wait 12 months before they qualify for the payment instead of the current 15 months under the changes, and the income thresholds for pensioners will also increase, considerably widening the net in relation to who can claim the fuel allowance.

In his budget speech, Minister Donohoe said climate change is one of the most important issues of our time.

"Future generations will not tolerate inaction from the leaders of today. But, by future generations, I do not just mean children yet to be born. Children, teenagers, and the younger adults of today demand action. They deserve action.

"They are clear in their arguments and the science is unambiguous: the world is burning, and the only chance we have to control those fires is through coherent and effective policies. This is why carbon taxation is so important," the Minister for Finance said.