Fuel Protests: Statements (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-14
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Anne Rabbitte (FF), Nominated by the Taoiseach

Absolutely and why should not it be on a day on which the Government is actually passing Financial Resolutions in relation to €500 million? If that is a Government that is not listening and acting, I do not know what it is.
I went to the protest last Tuesday morning in Portumna. There were tractors on the bridge in Portumna. I was able to walk over to every one of those farmers there and shake their hands. I knew them by name. I dispute what Senator Flynn said that they were infiltrated by the far right. These are hard-working farmers who get up to go out. They are hauliers and agri-contractors. They are the people who provide the food. They are our primary food producers. They did their day of protest and they left. The protest then rolled on into Galway. The local farmers felt compelled to support it. I agree with what Senator Byrne said earlier on. They felt compelled to support their colleagues. I still say again that the far right element that might have attended got their video clip.
They were horsed out, and rightly so. This was about fuel and the straw that broke the camel's back was the 3 cent. We have addressed that today and rectified it. We need to ensure that when we are having round-table solutions, we have more voices within that room. There is an element. It is not against any particular organisation but I genuinely believe that we need to have that diversification. We have seen that for the 100 years that Fianna Fáil has been a party. We have become smaller because there are more voices coming into all the Chambers. The same has to happen in farming and different sectors and we have to accept that but Galway was a peaceful protest.

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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