Fianna Fáil's Timmy Dooley has told the Dáil that motorists are dealing with a crisis in terms of the price of motor fuel.
Mr Dooley was speaking during a Fianna Fáil motion that calls on the Government to reduce the excise duty on motor fuels.
The party said that with VAT impacts added the motion would see a reduction in prices to motorists on the forecourts of about five cent per litre.
Mr Dooley said the burden of fuel costs was unbearable and that commuters and businesses were suffering.
He said it was an exceptional burden on any one sector of the economy and the price of fuel was dampening the economy.
Mr Dooley said that although oil prices were at a global high, the Government was not without the power to act on excise duty.
The measure would cost the Exchequer around €145m in lost taxes.
However, Fianna Fáil's Finance Spokesman Michael McGrath earlier said "this would be substantially self-financing".
The Government has rejected Fianna Fáil’s call. It said Ireland’s rates remain lower than many of its trading parties and significantly lower than the UK.
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said that Fianna Fáil was reverting to wishful-thinking and economic dreamland.
He said the Government could not start dismantling the Budget after three months with no proposal on how to get money from elsewhere.
Mr Noonan said that Fianna Fáil in government made an agreement in Europe that governments would not react to spikes in petrol prices by making temporary adjustments.
He said the Government was following a policy agreed by Fianna Fáil.
