Plummeting oil prices have only benefited drivers by 2c/litre at the pumps, it has emerged.
Diesel and petrol costs are expected to dip further but the discounts to filter down to the customer are painfully slow.
Fuel firms are blaming steep taxes for the delay.
Crude oil was 30% cheaper on Monday than at the start of the year.
Experts are warning of a crash and say the public have been duped into believing that the Coronavirus crisis is entirely to blame.
Paul Sommerville, CEO of Sommerville Advisory Markets, said: “It’s utter carnage today in the financial markets across the board.”
Mr Sommerville explained that a global price war has sparked havoc.
He told RTE’s Sean O’Rourke show: “Basically OPEC in the middle of last week decided that they were going to cut production.
“But they never asked the Russians and the Russians basically turned around the next day and said ‘we don’t agree to any of those cuts’.
“So Saudi Arabia turned around on Saturday and said ‘right forget all that, forget all the deals that are done, we are actually going to increase production’.
“They’ve said they’re going to have a huge increase in production, basically it is to drive the price of oil down and put the Russians out of business.
“Unfortunately it’s going to put a lot of stock into trouble, BP for example fell 27% today.”
He continued: “This is on top of everything that is going on in the markets anyway.
“Last week was the most volatile we’ve seen since October 2008, which is when Lehman Brothers collapsed.
“This is not all about Coronavirus, this is about financial markets repricing to a world that is reshaping to a slower pace of growth.”
But consumers have so far only seen a 2c drop in the price per litre.
Fuel bosses have defended the small reduction.
Kevin McPartlan, CEO of the Irish Petroleum Industry Association, said in a statement last night (Monday): “Crude oil accounts for less than a quarter of the cost of the diesel and petrol which IPIA members sell to consumers across Ireland.
“In fact, taxes, levies and excise make up a large majority of liquid fuel costs.
“About 62% of the price paid for petroland 58% of the price paid for diesel goes straight to the Government through VAT, excise, the NORA levy, carbon tax and the Better Energy levy.”
Mr McPartlan added: “Currency fluctuations also play a major role in determining the price of petroleum products: fluctuations which industry operators have absolutely no control over.
“Therefore, it is unrealistic to assume that the price an Irish motorist pays at the pump will change automatically due to a change occurring in the price of a barrel of crude oil.”
