Fuel Protests: Statements (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-14
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Paraic Brady (FG), Agricultural Panel

I also raised this issue earlier on the Order of Business. What have we learned from this whole debate that happened on the streets? What I take out of it is that we have farmers, businesspeople and hard-working individuals who have worked on the land. They have borrowed loads of money because we have invested in them to generate food. They have come across hard times. I will tell the Minister of State about a contractor. A contractor will bale silage this year and the farmer could owe him for last year's silage. That is how they operate. Where they are owed money from the year before, they will come and do this year's and get paid for last year's or maybe two years. Cash flow is one issue but farmers will always pay. Ninety nine out of 100 will always pay.
Farmers are cash-strapped. I want to be quite clear. This, on the streets, was a fuel protest, with farmers, hauliers, contractors and men on the buildings, the people who get up early in the morning. As Leo Varadkar said one time, we need to look after the man who gets up early in the morning. We need to go back to that concept. That is what we need to do because they came out on the streets. They would not come out on the streets of this country bar they were financially strapped. We need to listen, learn and move on. I am glad the Government held on today because we have €500 million of a package that these people need. We do not need any more upheaval and one thing or another. We need to move on. We are in a fuel crisis, which is what the protest was about. We need to deliver now for the people who are in hard times and I think we will as a Government.
I am really passionate about this. When the farmers on the streets were asked to move their tractors off O'Connell Street, it was three, four or five o'clock in the morning. In fairness, a lot of them got into their tractors and lorries and moved them off it. Anybody who did not move a tractor or lorry off it could not because they had alcohol taken at the time they were asked to move it. In fairness to them, they said to the gardaí that they had to leave the tractors there, they had alcohol taken and they would move them first thing in the morning. That is the decency we are dealing with on the streets - honest, decent, hard-working men who got up and moved them the next morning, and they did not want any trouble or anything else.
However, what I did not like about the whole thing is there was a coffin carried down there by people who never burned a gallon of diesel in their lives. That is the reality. There were people carrying a coffin down the streets to outside the gate here who did not know anything about contractors or farmers. They do not know anything about where food comes out of, fellas getting up in the morning, producing food, not going to bed at night or getting three hours' sleep and getting up to lamb ewes or calve cows. They moved in on top of it because they had a grievance with Government. That is the point. The protesters on the street created a monster that they did not think they could create. Learning and listening is needed, and the Government will learn and listen because Fine Gael was always known as a party for the farmers and I am glad our Minister, Deputy Heydon, has worked hard to deliver the package we need out there for them.
There was one thing that really annoyed everybody on that streets and I have to be clear and say it. When a protest takes place and there is a mention of bringing the Army on top of protesters, it really revs up the Irish people. That has to be recognised. We did not need that at that time.

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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