Fuel cost protests clog Irish cities for second day
Protesters demanding more help from the government to reduce fuel costs blocked busy streets and motorways across Ireland with parked lorries and tractors, disrupting vehicles and public transport for the second day in a row.
Convoys of vehicles began gathering in Dublin city center and other towns and cities on Tuesday; Protesters, including hauliers and farmers, complained that a 250 million euro (A$414 million) package to temporarily cut taxes on gasoline and diesel was not enough to ease the knock-on cost of the Middle East conflict.
“With the price we pay for fuel, I’m probably two months away from closing my business,” said Christopher Duffy, a 46-year-old agricultural contractor who was part of a group that closed Dublin’s main street, O’Connell Street, and called for the price of diesel to be capped at a lower rate.
“There’s really not much to ask… We’re backed into a corner.”
The ministers said they would not accept protesters’ requests to meet with them because they do not belong to representative groups that the government provides support to.
Organizers promised a third day of disruption on Thursday.
“We respect people’s right to protest, but it is unacceptable for people to declare that we are going to turn O’Connell Street into a car park,” Prime Minister Micheal Martin said at a press conference. he said.
A line-up of tractors and lorries on O’Connell Street has led to serious delays to bus services and the partial suspension of one of two tram lines crossing the city.
Significant traffic delays were also reported on highways leading to other major cities.
The chairman of the forecourt operators’ representative body told broadcaster RTE that protests at two fuel depots blocking deliveries to the cities of Galway and Limerick had led to at least one forecourt running out of fuel.
The Irish government welcomed the two-week ceasefire in the Iran conflict and expected it to soon lead to a drop in fuel prices.
“If they give us that phone call or meeting, the streets of Dublin will be cleared. If they don’t, we’ll stay there for as long as it takes,” said farmer and agricultural contractor John Dallon, 61.
