Kilkenny TD calls on State watchdog to clampdown on price gouging at pumps

A Kilkenny TD has challenged the State consumer watchdog to police price gouging at petrol stations as motorists are hit with soaring fuel costs.

Deputy John Paul Phelan is among several Government backbenchers who have called on the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) to get tough on forecourts and to check semi-State companies that earn huge profits as householders struglle to pay their bills.

The Local Fine Gael TD (pictured below) told the Irish Mail on Sunday: “Increasingly, people are asking what do they [CPPC} do? What were they doing when every petrol station was jacking up the cost of petrol?”

Fianna Fáil TD Barry Cowen added: “The powers of our watchdogs are not effective for gouging during a war. The State needs to take on all the holy cows of costs, including price rises by its own companies and bodies.”