Cabinet to hold meeting on nationwide fuel protests as blockades begin to be cleared

Taoiseach Micheál Martin is to convene a rare weekend Cabinet meeting on Sunday to discuss nationwide protests against the rising cost of fuel, as blockades across the country are being cleared by gardaí.

The protests — sparked by rising prices caused by US president Donald Trump’s war on Iran — had seen up to two-thirds of the State’s fuel stations running dry in recent days.

Last evening, a slow convoy of trucks and tractors caused congestion for hours in Cork city centre and the Jack Lynch Tunnel was closed overnight due to a blockade by protesters.

Those events followed on from protesters  calling off their blockade of Whitegate oil refinery on Saturday evening.

Nineteen trucks of fuel left Whitegate oil refinery this morning, with approximately 40 more due to leave by lunchtime.

In a statement this morning, Fuels for Ireland said it expected Whitegate to return to full capacity tomorrow. However, chief executive Kevin McPartlan warned that it could take forecourts “10 days to recover” after many ran dry due to the fuel protests.

Protesters abandoned their blockade of Whitegate at teatime yesterday following an earlier Garda action which broke through the barricade, allowing fuel tankers access to the State’s only oil refinery.

As they left Whitegate, organisers said they were standing down due to concerns about people who had joined the blockade on Saturday, saying they had been worried the new arrivals had intended to “cause trouble”.

Garda commissioner Justin Kelly on Saturday night confirmed that a number of arrests had been made at Whitegate yesterday.

He had vowed to step up enforcement against fuel-cost protesters, who were, he saiid, “endangering the State” by blocking critical infrastructure.

Overnight, a Garda operation on O’Connell St cleared the blockade on Dublin’s main thoroughfare, and last night, gardaí cleared blockades of the M50.

The blockade of Galway Port is reportedly now being brought to an end, with the Defence Forces assisting An Garda Síochána in clearing a makeshift barrier erected by protesters.

In Foynes, protesters who have been in situ since Tuesday said they had taken a vote and agreed to end their blockade by lunchtime today.

In Dublin, one of the leaders of the protests, James Geoghegan, said that a resumption of the O’Connell St blockade was “quite possible”, adding: “Lads can go home and regroup. A lot of lads want to go home and take maybe a day’s rest and come back out because until the issues are solved, the protest doesn’t end.”

However, he said that if Government measures due to be announced today are “good enough” that might influence further actions.

“If the costs are reduced sufficient to what we know we need to stay in business, then we’ll be happy with that,” he said.

Today’s Cabinet meeting will be held virtually, or non-corporeally, and is an unusual step, reflecting the seriousness of the ongoing national protests.

The temporary Fuel Support Scheme expected to be introduced, though the Government has said it will not be unveiled until after the protests end.

In a statement on Saturday night, Tánaiste and finance minister Simon Harris said: “The Government is eager to work sector by sector to try and make real progress on some of the very significant challenges that people are facing.”