Fuel Protests: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-14 ============================================================ Fiona O'Loughlin (FF), Administrative Panel I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, for being here. He had to step in at the last minute, so we appreciate his being here. As he said, Trump’s war on Iran has had an absolutely devastating impact around the world. The cost of fuel, energy and food has risen hugely. The impact, unfortunately, is going to go on for some time. We are in a very strange world in terms of what is happening. Of course, those external factors have a huge impact on what is happening in Ireland. We often talk here about food security and how important it is. To have that, we must support our farmers and those who get the food from farm to fork, so to speak, in terms of our supermarkets and shops. A lot of the disquiet that happened over the last week stemmed from the first set of measures the Government brought in that provided a miserly 3 cent reduction in green diesel for those working in agriculture. I do not know how the Minister for agriculture, sitting at Cabinet, allowed that through. It was clear from the start that it would not be enough to support those working in agriculture. It has been clear for some time that the hauliers need support. I know a lot of negotiation was going on between haulage companies, hauliers and the Government for some time. It is unfortunate people did not realise that and that the measures introduced, which the Minister of State outlined, were seen as something given as a reaction to those who were protesting. That is not the case. For the past number of weeks, the Government had been looking in depth at what needed to be done. I understand people are very frustrated. The cost of living has risen sharply. People are working hard and doing their best to keep up. It is very difficult. We saw that absolute frustration spilling out over the last week. People have every right to be angry and to demand more, but it is also important to recognise the real, tangible steps that are being taken. We need to make sure these supports reach people as quickly as possible. We would appreciate a timeline in that regard. I will say a few words regarding the protests, from the point of view of knowing a lot of the hauliers and farmers, who were genuinely concerned for their future, and supporting them in looking for more measures from the Government to support them. They had a legitimate reason for protesting. Protest persuades and a lot of good, decent people were persuaded by the protests to come out and support them. A protest occupies a public square, goes down a public street, gathers in front of Parliament or Oireachtas Members’ offices, etc., and asks the country and the Parliament for attention. That is important. It is important we all have that right, but a blockade does something else entirely. A blockade puts a small minority at a logistics choke point. Whoever happens to hold that choke point basically holds the country at ransom and practically at gunpoint. That is completely wrong. We all acknowledge and support protest because of centuries of legitimacy earned by people out protesting for good reason and good cause. Real people were involved in this. There were real hauliers, farmers and agricultural contractors whose margins are paper-thin. They concluded that something had to give. Their grievance and anger was legitimate. The cost of living is real and the Government has to support them. The Minister of State has outlined a number of measures. None of that is in dispute, but some of the groups infiltrating the protests have an awful lot to answer for. Listening to the racist, homophobic and transphobic comments was shocking. A good article was written that did a deep dive on some of the people fronting this. For example, with regard to the Facebook pages that led to early mobilisation, one such page, People of Ireland Against Fuel Prices Protest, was set up in 2021 and ran under a different name. It ran paid ads urging attendance but when we look into the people paying for these ads, there are huge concerns. Some of the rhetoric used claimed Ireland was being destroyed by Europe and the Government and that the missing fuel tax money should come from the IPAS centres and the emptying of IPAS centres. There was a huge anti-immigration element, not from the genuine protesters but from a lot of the people who infiltrated them, unfortunately. It is very concerning and it needs to be called out, along with some of the misinformation that followed. This included AI-generated images of gardaí using water cannons that did not exist, old footage of sulkies racing down O'Connell Street recycled as if it was last week and a video of an Army vehicle trapped under a railway bridge that was not even filmed in Ireland. One individual who had run in a general election previously announced that children as young as 12 had been pepper-sprayed by regime forces at the Whitegate oil refinery. Again, this was completely false. All of these need to be called out and the decent, good, genuine people of Ireland need to see this for what it was. I certainly hope that in some way we are going to be able to get the true story out. A lot of people's true story, as I mentioned, is frustration, anger and hurt in relation to the cost of living going up, with the majority of this obviously tied in with the war against Iran. Something else seismic happened as well. There was an element of trust being lost between the Government and the people. We need to work hard to restore that to assure people and ensure the supports that are badly needed are put in place. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-14/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:48+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-04-14