Ireland's fuel bill in 2024The last of the 2022 relief goes back on.

Petrol in 2024 averaged €1.748; diesel, €1.700. Those are means of 53 Monday prices from the European Commission's bulletin. Petrol closed 2024 7.0 cent higher than its opening reading. Set beside 2023, petrol averaged +7.1 cent and diesel +4.0 cent, year on year.

Petrol peaked at €1.837 (6 May) and bottomed at €1.678 (22 Jan); between the two lie 15.9 cent a litre. On average through 2024, diesel was 4.8 cent a litre cheaper than petrol. Over the year the duties and VAT made up 56.9% of what a motorist paid for petrol, around 99.5 cent a litre. The heating gas oil series, which in Ireland means green diesel, averaged €1.008; its extremes were €0.933 and €1.069.

Grouping the Mondays by month, petrol was dearest in May at an average of €1.826 and cheapest in January at €1.680.

The ledger of weekly changes reads 27 up, 26 down and 0 level for petrol.

The EU average for petrol that year was €1.700, which left Ireland 4.8 cent higher on the European mean.

2024 saw the duty on petrol and diesel revised three times: a new schedule on 1 Apr set petrol at €638.91 and diesel at €551.22 per 1,000 litres; from 1 Aug, €671.43 on petrol and €575.61 on diesel per 1,000 litres; on 9 Oct the rates became €688.78 (petrol) and €595.68 (diesel) per 1,000 litres.

The last of the 2022 relief went in two steps, on 1 April and 1 August 2024; on 9 October the carbon tax on petrol and diesel became €63.50 a tonne.

Month by month, the CSO's survey took petrol from €1.684 (January) to €1.750 (December).

The neighbouring years, fuel prices in 2023 and what a litre cost in 2025, are kept on the same pattern.

Every other year is one tap away on the weekly archive since 2005.