Ireland’s government moved Sunday to try to quell protests over rising pump prices, with Prime Minister Micheál Martin saying it would put forward additional fuel tax cuts aimed at ending blockades that have disrupted fuel deliveries nationwide. Martin said the proposed 505 million euro ($592 million) package would require parliamentary approval and would be added to a 250 million euro tax break the government approved nearly three weeks earlier.
The announcement came as the protests began to ease after a police crackdown that started Saturday. Over roughly six days, demonstrators blocked access to Ireland’s only oil refinery, a major port and several vital depots, leaving tanker trucks unable to deliver fuel to service stations and forcing many gas pumps to run dry, the Associated Press reported. Slow-moving convoys of vehicles also backed up traffic on major highways.
Martin said Ireland had been close to having oil tankers diverted to other countries and its refinery shut down because of the blockades. “It made absolutely no sense what was going on,” he said, adding that “Higher fuel scarcity and higher fuel prices would actually have been the inevitable outcome of these blockades.” He also said his government would offer the tax cuts to relieve cost-of-living pressure that has grown since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital channel for world oil, tied by the government to the U.S.-Israel war on Iran.
Police warnings of arrests began before the Sunday developments. Officers started breaking up protesters Saturday, using pepper spray to help clear people from the Whitegate refinery in County Cork, and they said they would remove demonstrators who were endangering critical infrastructure and public safety because gas shortages could hinder emergency services. On Sunday, police ordered trucks and tractors blocking O’Connell Street in Dublin to clear, while elsewhere they clashed with demonstrators to reopen the Galway docks after a military vehicle was used to knock down a makeshift barrier.
As protesters continued to press their demands, some actions began to unwind. In County Limerick, protesters at a fuel depot voted to end their action Sunday, and at Rosslare Europort in Wexford, demonstrators agreed to begin letting trucks leave after the port was jammed with cargo that could not be moved. Outside the Foynes depot, agricultural contractor Neilus O’Connor told RTE that it was “just a pity” protesters had escalated to bring the government to the table “to get fairness for every working person around this country.”
Protests had started Tuesday and grew as word spread on social media, with truckers, farmers and taxi and bus operators taking part. Participants called for government action such as price caps or tax cuts to reduce fuel costs they said would drive businesses out of operation. Government officials, according to the report, said they were baffled by the rationale for the protests, arguing that the global price spike stems from the Middle East conflict restricting oil exports rather than domestic policy choices.
Industry leaders said the supply crunch could take time to recover even as blockades were lifted. Fuels for Ireland chief executive Kevin McPartlan said the reopening of the refinery and removal of roadblocks at fuel depots were expected to begin reversing the shortage, though it could take up to 10 days to fully recover. He spoke as a rare Sunday Cabinet meeting finalized the relief measures, with the coalition government facing political pressure from rivals critical of its handling of the crisis.
The parliamentary fight over the fuel measures began to take shape alongside the protest developments. Sinn Fein, the largest opposition party, said it would call for a no-confidence vote in the coalition government, and Holly Cairns of the Social Democrats said her party would support the vote. Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said the government had “lost the confidence of the public” and was “clear” that it was “still” not listening and did not accept the “scale of this fuel and cost-of-living crisis.”