Four of the eight gas pumps are cordoned off with black-yellow ribbon and large cones. Even of the pumps that are open, not every reservoir is filled. Some of the grippers also have ribbon wrapped around them as a warning: do not use them.
At Applegreen petrol station in Celbridge, about 20 kilometers west of the Irish capital Dublin, they received fuel again on Sunday, after having previously exhausted their entire supply. Rodica McCormack comes to refuel with her red Toyota Prius. She charges almost 62 euros, the petrol costs 1.92 euros per liter. “I’m on the road for work every day, so I can’t live without it.”
McCormack – she is a lawyer – has been inconvenienced in recent days by the protests against high fuel prices, which have taken place throughout Ireland. Roadblocks took her more than two hours to complete a journey that normally takes about 45 minutes. “A bit clumsy, but of course I support the protests. They are desperately needed. The government does not listen to us, to ordinary people.”
Angry farmers, truck drivers and contractors blocked highways and traffic intersections last week. They blocked access to fuel depots and to the country’s only oil refinery. In Galway, in the west, they also blocked access to the harbour, preventing a ship carrying six million liters of oil from docking. Escalation threatened. Hundreds of gas stations ran empty. The fire brigade and ambulances had to limit their assistance to urgent cases. The army was already prepared to dismantle the blockades by force if necessary.
Excise duties are temporarily reduced
The main blockades were peacefully dismantled by police on Sunday, ahead of a government press conference on financial support for the transport sector, farmers and fishing. There will be a package of 505 million euros in compensation for high fuel prices, which are a result of the war in Iran and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. General excise duties on diesel and petrol will also temporarily decrease by 10 cents per liter, at least until the end of July. This is in addition to a support package of 250 million euros from the end of March.
Prime Minister Micheál Martin and Finance Minister Simon Harris had nothing good to say about the blockades on Sunday. “They made absolutely no sense,” said Prime Minister Martin. And Harris: “We cannot talk to people who are illegally blocking our crucial infrastructure, especially at a time of a global energy crisis.” The politicians did not make their agreements about support directly with the demonstrators, but with employer companies in the sectors involved. It is expected to take another ten days before all petrol stations are normally stocked again.
For days, angry farmers, truck drivers and contractors blocked roads in Ireland, including the motorway near north-eastern Dundalk.
Photo Paul Faith/AFP
The dissatisfaction in Ireland is broader than just the prices at the pump. For days, semi-trailer, truck and tractor drivers camped out on O’Connell Street, one of Dublin’s busiest streets. Lawrence McGrath had taped A4 sheets behind the windscreen of his trailer, with the campaign slogan Can’t afford to move. “Everything is expensive. The rent. Groceries. Food is crazy expensive. And our government is stingy. They want to save their money for a ‘rainy day‘. Well, how wet do you want it?” The Irish government has been taking in billions of euros more than it spends for years, mainly through tax revenues from technology and pharmaceutical companies.
Normally, McGrath transports bricks or heavy construction materials with his semi-trailer. The higher diesel prices cost him an extra 7,000 to 8,000 euros per month, he estimates. “Depending on what you’re transporting.” Diesel prices have risen by more than 20 percent in recent weeks and diesel used in the agricultural sector has even become 50 percent more expensive. McGrath would also like to see the CO2fuel tax would be reduced, but that did not happen on Sunday. The government did postpone a planned increase in that levy, from May until at least October.
Protests were also about migration
The protests over fuel prices became mixed with dissatisfaction with the Irish government in general and immigration in particular. The same ones have been waving in recent days Make Ireland Great Againflags in the air as during large anti-migration demonstrations last year. Some leaders of the protests were given extensive space on online channels of radical anti-immigration influencers. And far-right British activist Tommy Robinson encouraged the Irish to “stand up now” against their government.
“This is about much more than the price of diesel,” said one of the protesters in Dublin, Anthony Reid. “My wife and I now walk everywhere to save costs. I can barely afford the costs for my own family, let alone those for someone else.” Reid sees migration and the costs that migrants bring with them as a problem. He has seen Dublin change: “As a white person, I am in the minority. I no longer recognize my own country. Our government did not even take fingerprints from everyone who entered here.” The latter is a persistent myth about the lack of checks on asylum seekers.
On Sunday afternoon, semi-trailer driver Lawrence McGrath tells us on the phone that the police lifted him from the bed in his truck at half past three that night. “There were a lot of them.” He does not think the aid announced by the government is enough. The politicians are trying to divide the Irish, says McGrath. Treasury Secretary Harris said “ordinary people were bearing the brunt of our protests.” “What are we then? Not ordinary people?” He would like to go back on the streets again, but he will refrain from doing so for the time being. “They registered everything, our names, our license plates. They threatened to arrest us if we blocked roads again.”