Fuel Protests: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-14 ============================================================ Tom Clonan (IND), University of Dublin This is an inflection point in our political discourse and policy, and we all need to recognise that. I was in the Lower House during the no-confidence debate. It was very heated and people were naturally very passionate in their views, but as a collective we need to pull together because there are voices in front of Leinster House now who are trying to seize the narrative. This is not just about a fuel crisis or cost-of-living crisis; it is a political crisis of how we communicate. Therefore, I want to be as constructive as I can. What is the difference between morality and ethics? The question of how you reconcile two morally strongly held positions points to the difference between them. Ethics is the philosophical approach where we try to reach the middle ground. That did not happen last week until it was too late. As politicians, we need to avoid polarity at all costs and, in this Chamber and the Lower House, work together to reach consensus. That is going to mean compromise. There is a kind of leadership style that has emerged. I have noticed it, and I am sure my colleagues on the Government side have also and are probably as unhappy as I am about it. I refer to a kind of remote, paternalistic, verging-on-authoritarian approach to leadership. We have to be very careful about that because of the disconnect, which is even felt in these Chambers. If we lose the social contract with the people, it will look like Capitol Hill and what is taking place out in front of this House this evening. I have a great fealty to An Garda Síochána. My grandfather, Joe Clonan, fought in the War of Independence and then was in the first intake of An Garda Síochána. Kevin Street, then Lad Lane, had gun ports. My grandfather told me the gardaí had to walk out of the station unarmed among the people. My father was a garda. He was involved on the front line during the H-Block riots, the hunger strike riots and the burning down of the British Embassy. Not once in the history of the State have the Defence Forces been called out to a civilian protest. I saw misinformation and disinformation being circulated over the weekend in the national news media, where aiding civil power operations was conflated with aiding civil authority operations, which is an intervention that takes place during industrial disputes – for example, bin disputes and bus disputes. The two operations are completely different. I have been deployed on both. I was on the front line in aid to civil power operations when we were dealing with organised crime or paramilitaries. You do not equate the Irish people with paramilitaries or organised crime groups. You do not do it intentionally or unintentionally. I also went to O’Connell Street on Friday and I walked among the protesters. There has been a lot of talk of critical infrastructure. What I saw in those people on O’Connell Street was the critical infrastructure of this Republic. They were decent, honest, hard-working people who were put to the pin of their collar, who did not want to be there and who were only there because they were acting in extremis . Their voices were not listened to. There was also another group of people there, a very small but vocal minority. I did a little piece to camera on Friday that went viral. If you listen to it at the end, you will hear them say to me, “Go back to your own fucking country.” To me. I am from Finglas. I am glad to hear it has been elevated to the status of a state. An ugly, divisive, toxic polity is emerging and trying to exploit the hardship that our citizens and everybody in this Chamber are experiencing. As politicians, we have to be really careful not to cede the ground and give the narrative over to these really reprehensible voices, some of whom are vocal outside. I have huge respect for the Minister, Deputy O’Callaghan, and I have no doubt that he acted in utmost good faith when he looked for the assistance of the Defence Forces, but it should never have happened. --- 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