You might have heard people complaining about the price of oil going up recently and its impact on the cost of living. But why is that happening? RTÉ's Economics editor David Murphy came into the news2day studio to explain it all.
Press play on the image above to see the full news2day Explainer now.
David says: "Well, what's been happening is that there's a war going on in the Middle East. And the Middle East produces a lot of oil and oil is used for petrol, diesel, for cars and home heating oil in our homes. And because of this war, ships haven't been able to come from the Middle East to Ireland. And as a result, there's been a problem with supply. And because of that, prices have risen."
Cathal asked if the conflict is over in the Middle East, why are we seeing these prices change so quickly here in Ireland?
David explains that we hold limited supplies in Ireland. He says "there are big, big containers in Dublin ports where people fill up with petrol and diesel, which are brought to garage forecourts or brought to people's houses, but they only hold a few days' supply. So very, very quickly, the higher prices globally feed through to Ireland. And that means costs can go up here an awful lot very quickly. That's why it's a concern because it means people will have less money. to spend on other things."
We also asked our expert guest can we expect to see these prices go down any time soon? "Well, it looks as if they're beginning to go down now. However, it really depends on what happens with this war. If it goes on for weeks or months, this could become a protracted problem. But if it ends quickly and everybody hopes that it will, well, then maybe prices could come down quickly too."
Click here for another news2day Explainer on what is happening in Iran.
Watch the report in full by pressing play on the image at the top of this article and tune in to news2day on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player weekdays at 4.20pm.
Visit www.rte.ie/news2day for more from the show.
