Search the record

protesters who were on the streets were there, by their own explanation, because their backs were up to the wall to the extent that they simply could not sustain the fuel price hikes they were enduring. That is on top of a cost-of-living crisis that

there is something like a price hike in fuel. It comes down to the fact that it is their source of heating. If they have to pay double what they had to pay a few months ago, they will protest. People are forced to travel long distances

financial pressure to manage day to day costs of fuel and to carry out their work. It is shameful that these reductions in fuel are only temporary. I am worried. The war is not over. We will go on holidays. The Dáil will close down on 16 July … giving out? Why were they all protesting? It was not just farmers and contractors. Many people were feeling the pinch and felt they could not pay the people who mind their children when they go to work and pay for the fuel to go to work

Fuel can keep rising but increasing the fuel cost and increasing the taxes on people we want to keep here will drive them out of the country all the time. On the other side of that, you have people protesting. People in this country cannot afford to protest

straight in this House; the right to protest is not unlimited. Our Constitution states, "The right of the citizens to assemble peaceably" is subject to public order. What we witnessed last week at certain sites, where the blockading of fuel and goods occurred, was not a peaceful assembly

been suffering because of the Government. I got emails from older people and people with disabilities who wanted to be out with the protesters, but they could not because they were at home trying to stay warm, in their beds for longer than they needed to because they … added fuel to their fire. I stand with the ordinary people of Ireland, who have absolutely no confidence in the Government. The volume of emails I got have stated that quite clearly. Ministers say, as one did today, that some of the people on the protest were their

honest about the fuel support scheme. The Government sold farmers a pup. When the price of green diesel spiked by 80% and farmers were struggling, the Government offered them 2.4 cents off per litre. It was an insult. We warned the Government on the floor of the Dáil … what was going to happen. Sure enough, what happened was a revolt. When farmers and contractors went to the trouble of protesting, the Government, after several days of blackening those people, announced a bigger scheme for farmers worth €100 million. Ministers were on the radio promising €100 million

People are entitled to protest. In my view, you seem incapable of saying it is wrong to blockade our only oil refinery. You cannot say that is wrong, even though it would have led to a scarcity of oil supply and an increased fuel crisis. You cannot

between this and the protests that have taken place across the State in recent times. While they are primarily about the failure of the Government to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, they are being exacerbated by its climate policies: overdependence on fossil fuels, failure to provide adequate

small businesses, fuel is not optional. It is a core cost of them staying in business. That was the message that I heard clearly this weekend in Dungarvan and across Waterford more widely as my colleague Deputy Cullinane and I spoke with protesters, listened to them and heard

country and its citizens. People are suffering and under enormous financial pressure due to the cost-of-living increases in the price of fuel due to the war in Iran. It has to be acknowledged that all of us across Government failed to respond effectively in a timely … have encountered anger, resentment and outright hostility, which, in my view, arises from indecision, slow intervention and failure of communications. The protest started out with many aggrieved, hard-working, decent and respectable people who were worried sick about their future. It was later infiltrated by undesirables whose only

technologies into our energy poverty retrofit programmes; — in the long run, the best way to protect Ireland from the impact of international fossil fuel prices is to reduce our dependence on them; — Ireland is undergoing a renewables-led energy transformation, electricity generation from renewables has increased fivefold since … protests. I have been working through this with them for a number of weeks. I met the Irish Road Haulage Association, IRHA, on Good Friday and engaged directly with its representatives. We have now been able to establish a scheme of €40 million per month in fuel supports

fuel issue and the cost of living. It is way out of touch with where people are on this issue. This game should not happen. It will not happen, in my opinion, because I think people are going to mobilise. I think they will protest and will stop

protests last week. I also listened to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation three weeks ago when it told us there were healthcare practitioners - nurses and midwives - who simply could not get to their patients when using their own cars because of the cost of fuel. That

country that are currently in arrears with their electricity bills. Families feel they are being assaulted by the Government due to sky-high fuel prices. Are their lives today any different from their lives yesterday because of this budget? Is the price of petrol, diesel or agricultural diesel … Ireland at the moment. I cannot understand how the Government is not getting this. Did it not see the country convulsed by protests for the last seven months? Did it not see the ports, the oil refineries and the streets that were blocked? Why has this

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Government is a government of chaos. It has done more damage to fuel prices in this country than the war in Iran. The intransigence of Micheál Martin and Simon Harris has actually brought this country to a standstill. Their stubbornness has seen petrol … first time since the 1980s and I have never seen as much political stress on the streets since the right to water protests. The Government should not forget that its democratic authority comes from the citizens with whom it refused to converse last week. For too long, there

made and we ended up with protests. What happened? The Government blamed the protesters and everybody but itself. The reason it blamed the protesters was that it refused to take responsibility for the fact that the Minister and the Government did not do enough to support people during … about a cost-of-living crisis, it is rents, mortgages, groceries, insurance and across the board, but it is also the cost of fuel - petrol, diesel, home heating oil and all of the other fuels. All the Minister is doing in this financial resolution is extend the temporary

tomorrow morning and go to the shop or go to work. They have to use the car and spend the money on the fuel, but the Government is not willing to help them. The hauliers are on their knees. We know that. Our TDs and councillors were down … where I was last Saturday. I was in Bantry last Saturday, where there was a 60-year anniversary celebration of the farmers who protested, and left Bantry in their oilskins, tartan trousers and broken boots and marched to Dublin. Fianna Fáil left them 20 days and nights outside

Ireland. For seven years, we in Aontú have said that locking people into an annual fuel tax increase irrespective of the price of fuel is morally wrong. Today, Simon Harris has, for the first time, used exactly the same language in his speech. Is this a potential … carbon tax in this country. All of this is happening for the simple reason that the Government is afraid the people will protest on the streets during the EU Presidency. The Government is afraid of the people it is supposed to represent

protest itself and they were anxious to make a point. Whatever is being said nationally about those who were on the protest, I think it has angered and insulted the ordinary decent men, women and families who I met. They were out there because of the frustration they … their ambitions were not being fulfilled and that they were not being supported by the Government. The farmers were there complaining about the fuel costs, and rightly so. They are understandably getting their package today. However, we need to deal with other issues we hear about in rural

refused to listen to the people in relation to carbon tax. The Government said that the objective of carbon tax is to push fuel up to a price so people move over to alternatives, but what happens if they cannot afford an alternative? What happens if they cannot … this country because their money and income are evaporating. Now, 300,000 public servants will find that they have no alternative but to protest. The thing about it is that the Government showed a shocking arrogance to the protestors back in April in refusing to negotiate with them

matches. My mammy could not take me to two matches because of fuel." She said I stood with them during the fuel crisis. That is what a nine-year-old from Kerry was saying. Can the Minister of State imagine that? It is not a laughing matter when … peaceful process and for understanding where they were. I have said on more than one occasion that the people who were at the protests, who I stood with in Foynes, County Limerick, were people who had never protested before. They were all members of the Fianna Fáil

When they struggle, the entire country feels it. Without them, Ireland stops. It is as simple as that. In recent weeks, we saw protests across the country. There were many voices involved and many genuine people were present. These are people who are feeling genuine pressure … acknowledge the work that has been done by the Government, the Minister, the Minister of State and others. The RTSS and the fuel support scheme represent a really meaningful step forward. These schemes will provide relief for many operators, and I welcome the engagement that has taken place

trade unions have to take heed of this as they enter into pay talks. We are in a new phase of militant protest. Workers do not need heavy machinery to force the Government to listen to them. The most effective form of disruptive action is the strike … rent controls, increases in social welfare payments and universal measures on the cost-of-living crisis, including breaking with the reliance on fossil fuels which is what has gotten us into this crisis in the first place. The most immediate thing that can be done is free public

step that was taken last week with a huge package of additional funding to deal with the emergency crisis to end the protest and the blockades, does the Minister believe the Department will get the financial backing across the Government to take some of these really big steps … necessary when we see for the second time in four years the vulnerability of our economy to its addiction to fossil fuels and the consequent impact on our emissions? If this climate action plan does not contain some big, bold and new ideas to decarbonise and does