Transport Spokesperson Timmy Dooley will bring the Motorist Emergency Relief Bill before the Dáil for debate this evening.

The legislation will reduce petrol and diesel prices by 5c a litre.

Deputy Dooley said: "This is extremely important legislation that will bring immediate relief to hundreds of thousands of motorists across the country. The rapidly rising cost of fuel is putting people to the pin of their collars in terms of their household budgets.

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"Drivers are stretched every week when they go to fill up their cars. This price cut is timely and will be extremely important to people, particularly families finding it very difficult to stretch their money after paying essential bills.

"Drivers are already contributors to the State paying over 10% (close to €4bn) of all revenue between excise duty, VAT, VRT and €1bn in motor tax.

"As well as providing an immediate 5c cut in the cost of litre of petrol and diesel at the pumps the Bill gives the Finance Minister power to review prices every three months. This allows the Government to respond quickly to developing situations in the market place. It doesn’t make any sense to only have a review of fuel prices once a year at budget time. The cost of oil on world markets is changing all the time and the Government needs flexibility to respond to this."

(CD)