Youll be paying more for your petrol over the summer

The AA has predicted that fuel prices will continue to rise during the summer.
The average price of a litre of petrol now costs 143.6 cents – 4.6 cent more than April.
May marks the fourth straight month of a hike in prices according to the latest national fuel price survey from the AA. Diesel prices also swelled and is up 2.6 cent in the month to an average of 133.1 cent.
Despite rising fuel costs, current prices are still lower than this time last year, where the average price of a litre of petrol was 154.3 cent and diesel 146.8 cent.
“Prices fell in the second half of last year but have been rising since February,” says Director of Consumer Affairs Conor Faughnan. “It was only a short reprieve. The recent rise looks set to continue with the weakening Euro making it even worse. It will be an expensive summer on the roads.”
From the period of February through to May of 2015 the price of fuel has had a consistent month-on-month increase by an average of 11.83% for the price of petrol and 8.4% for diesel.
The price of oil has increased by 26.58% between February and May of this year which means higher wholesale fuel prices, and the weaker Euro is down by 20% against the dollar compared to last year.
As bad as the international factors are, the AA points put that the biggest reason for high fuel prices is the tax applied by the Irish government, including an extra 23 cent per litre in austerity-era tax increases added since 2008.
“When you spend €1.43 on a litre of petrol, 92 cent of it is tax,” says Faughnan. “A tax-free litre even with recent price rises only costs 51.8 cents.”