Fuel Protests: Statements (Resumed) Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-14 ============================================================ Pauline Tully (SF), Cultural and Educational Panel No. A protest was held in Cavan over the weekend. It started on Friday and went on until lunchtime yesterday. I attended on Saturday and Sunday for a number of hours and I went there because I wanted to talk to the people who were there. There were farmers, farming contractors and hauliers present, as well as lots of other people who were just there to support them. I did not witness any infiltration by far-right groups. In fact, I heard of instances where some people from the far right turned up and were told to go away, that their kind were not wanted there. What I found among the protesters was that while there was very good-natured camaraderie, they were very angry. They were angry at the Government because they felt really let down. They felt really let down because the Government did not meet them on that first day and did not listen to them in Dublin. If some effort had been made to meet them on that first day it would not have escalated into what it did for the rest of the week. They just wanted to be listened to and for people to understand. I spoke to one haulier who has a number of trucks on the road. He said it has cost him an extra €18,000 in fuel over the past month. He has entered into contracts with his customers so he cannot add on that cost. He would not want to do that anyway because it would just end up going onto the products that he is delivering and the ordinary person will have to pay but he cannot sustain that. An agricultural contractor told me that he is spending, on average, €500 a day on diesel and that is not sustainable. Bus drivers are affected. Around 95% of the school bus fleet, for example, is private contractors who have entered into contracts with the Department of education. They have a set amount for the year but the additional cost of fuel has not been factored in. What are they supposed to do? Are they to just suck it up and go on about their business? They cannot do that. This is going to put them out of business. They were really at the pin of their collar. This is happening on top of everything else that has been happening in the country in the last few years. The cost of fuel has been going up, as have energy, rent and construction costs. Everything going up has just led to people being at the pin of their collar and they cannot cope any more. There was immense goodwill towards the protesters. I saw several different businesses, at different intervals, delivering food and drinks to the protesters. There were ordinary people, who were not business people there too. One woman came up while I was there and said that she so appreciated what the protesters were doing. She had a tray of home-made scones and buns for the protesters. She said that she had a daughter with a disability and was driving her to appointments on a regular basis. She had seen for herself the increases in the cost of diesel and it was crippling her. We had carers there too. They cannot cope. They are trying to do their calls but the extra that they are spending every week on fuel means that it is costing them money to work. They are not very well paid in that sector, as we know, but they do very important work. There was huge anger at the threat of the use of the Army against the people. The Defence Forces are there to protect the country and its people. They are not there to be used on the citizens of this country. There was huge anger about that and it propelled more people to go out and protest than were initially intending to do so. They went out to state their opposition to that. We know this started with the illegal war on Iran waged by the warmongers Trump and Netanyahu, but the Government needs to be prepared. These crises arise. They are outside of the control of the Government and everybody acknowledges that but we knew from the Ukrainian war that this would drive up fuel prices. We need to be prepared to ensure the people of the country do not end up suffering. If farmers, farm contractors and hauliers have to absorb the extra costs, it will just end up affecting the food being produced. It is either not going to be produced, not brought from the ports or to the ports for export, or the price is going to go way up, which will affect every single person in the country. Everyone is trying to survive and to deal with all of the other costs that are arising. One issue that was raised with me on a regular basis was the lack of supports for self-employed people. It is a real bone of contention that there are no real supports for self-employed people if they end up losing their business. This is an issue that really needs to be addressed. --- 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