Irish PM announces fuel tax cuts amid days of protests over rising pump prices
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Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said on Sunday his government would lower new fuel taxes to try to end crippling protests over rising gas prices, even as he hit back at farmers and truckers who had blocked access to the country’s only oil refinery and several depots.
Martin said the 505 million euro ($819 million Cdn) package would ease some of the cost-of-living pressures that have grown since the US-Israel war in Iran led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil channel. The relief measure, which needs parliamentary approval, will come on top of a 250 million euro ($405 million Cdn) tax break approved nearly three weeks ago.
It is not clear whether the proposal will end the riots, although protests subsided on Sunday amid a police crackdown.
Within six days, the actions caused chaos as an Irish refinery, a major port and several key depots were shut down, preventing tanker trucks from delivering fuel to service stations and many gas pumps shut down. A convoy of slow-moving vehicles also caused traffic jams on major roads.
Martin said Ireland was on the verge of having oil tankers diverted to other countries and a refinery closed.
“There was absolutely no sense of what was going on,” he said. “Higher fuel shortages and higher fuel prices would have been the result of this blockade.”
Police had warned of arrests and began cracking down on protests on Saturday, using pepper to help evacuate people from the Whitegate refinery in County Cork and vowing to remove others who were endangering critical infrastructure and public safety because gas shortages could hamper emergency response.
Police ordered trucks and tractors blocking O’Connell Street, a major thoroughfare in the capital Dublin, to leave early Sunday morning. On the other side of the country, police clashed with protesters to re-open the docks in Galway after a military vehicle was used to break down a temporary barricade.
Protesters at a petrol depot in County Limerick voted to end their strike on Sunday and protesters at Rosslare Europort in Wexford agreed to start allowing lorries to leave the port, which is full of cargo that cannot be moved.
“It’s sad that we had to raise the protest to this level to bring our government to the table to get everyone working right across the country,” Neilus O’Connor, an agricultural contractor, told national broadcaster RTE, outside the Foynes depot.
The protests began on Tuesday and grew as news spread on social media, with truck drivers, farmers, and taxi and bus drivers taking part in calls for help – such as price cuts or tax cuts – to lower fuel costs they say will put people out of business.
Government officials, who have introduced measures to ease the rise in prices in the past few weeks, were frustrated by the reason for the protests because the rise in prices in the world is due to the conflict in the Middle East that restricts the sale of oil.
Rory Johnston, the founder of Commodity Context, says that the pressure in the world economy gives Iran the strength to demand security guarantees from the US Johnston and says that the drop in the price of commodities such as oil and gas will be delayed even after the flow of ships in the Strait of Hormuz returns to normal.
More than a third of petrol pumps were out by Saturday, but the reopening of the refinery and the removal of roadblocks at petrol depots were expected to begin to reverse the shortage, although it could take up to 10 days to fully recover, said Fuels for Ireland chief executive Kevin McPartlan.
Sunday’s rare Cabinet meeting to finalize relief measures comes as the federal government faces fresh political pressure from rivals who criticize its handling of the crisis.
Sinn Fein, the main opposition party, said it would call for a vote of no confidence in the coalition government. Holly Cairns of the Social Democrats said her party would support the vote.
“They have lost public trust,” said Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald. “It is clear that they still do not listen and do not accept the extent of this fuel crisis and the cost of living.”
