What is the legacy of fuel protests?
What is going to be the most significant outcome of the fuel protests that brought parts of the country to a standstill last week? Is it that any angry group of people with access to a few large vehicles will be able to hold the country to ransom?
Presumably the state will now put procedures into place so that the weak spots that the fuel protestors found and exploited will not be so exposed again?
Ireland will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union from 1 July to 31 December 2026 for the eighth time. During these six months, Ireland will chair council meetings, broker agreements, and advance key EU policies, forming a ‘Trio Presidency’ with Lithuania and Greece.
During Ireland’s EU Presidency term, Irish ministers will be responsible for steering the EU’s legislative and policy agenda, and wide range of high-level EU meetings will be hosted in Ireland.
The resignation of Michael Healy-Rae as a minister of state from the Government is another outcome although it’s unlikely to be the most significant one. He accused the coalition of losing touch with the people and said that he could not, in his heart, vote confidence in the Government.
“Because of the fact that I believe this Government have let the people of Ireland down, I will be voting no confidence in the leader of the country, and I will be tendering my resignation as Minister of State from now,” he said to some surprise in the Dáil on Tuesday.
He called on future governments and the current Government to “listen” and “be kind”. “There are farmers that are really suffering so much at present. There are agricultural contractors that are really suffering. There are people that cried at the protest,” he added. The Coalition won the confidence motion on Tuesday evening by 92 votes to 78 despite Michael and his brother Danny voting against the Government.
During the debate, Taoiseach Micheál Martin told the Dáil the blockades at fuel depots and at the oil refinery in Whitegate last week were “destructive”.
“Nobody has the right to appoint themselves as the voice of the people. We should all be concerned with the attempts to import extreme ideologies here,” he said.
However a Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks poll published last weekend put public support for the fuel protests at 56%, with those not supporting it at 38% and 6% didn’t know.
It would have been interesting to ask the people surveyed the same question on Saturday and Sunday when the impact of having events cancelled and fuel shortages really began to affect people.