DUBLIN (AP) — Police removed protesters Saturday to reopen Ireland's only oil refinery as a fifth day of disruptive demonstrations over the soaring price of fuel left many gas pumps dry and threatened to cripple transportation across the country.
Trucks and tractors continued to block access to vital fuel depots and a major port, and vehicles blocking traffic led to closures of part of the main highway around Dublin, the capital, as well as sections of other major roadways.
Irish police put all officers on notice they could be called to duty over the weekend and the military was prepared to use heavy equipment to remove trucks and tractors blocking facilities and roadways as the government renewed talks to resolve the dispute.
The protests began Tuesday and have grown as word spread on social media, leading truckers, farmers, and taxi and bus operators to stage blockades and call for caps on fuel prices or cuts to excise or carbon taxes.
Government officials, who had already introduced measures to ease the burden of price rises, have been baffled over the rationale behind the protests because the global price spike is due to the conflict in the Middle East that has restricted oil exports.
Prime Minister Micheál Martin said Friday that the country was on the brink of turning tankers away at ports during a global shortage and was in jeopardy of losing its oil supply.
“It is unconscionable, it’s illogical, it is difficult to comprehend,” Martin told national broadcaster RTE.
Plumber Paddy Murray said he joined the protest outside the port in Rosslare because he’d paid taxes all his life and was looking for the government to help him with the cost of living.
“We can’t continue to do business with the cost of fuel, cost of wages, everything,” Murray told RTE. “We need somebody to help. It’s the government’s here like, to, represent us. You know, do your job. We’re the working lads that keep everything going. We’re the working lads that pay taxes.”
More than a third of the 1,500 service stations had run out of fuel Saturday and that number was expected to grow dramatically if the roadblocks remain, Fuels for Ireland chief executive Kevin McPartlan said.
Reopening the Whitegate refinery in County Cork will help restore some service.
At midday, police vans from the public order unit rolled into the refinery to clear the protesters as the military stood by to assist. Officers used pepper spray, and video on RTE showed several officers dragging a protester from a tractor.
A convoy of seven fuel delivery trucks from different companies was escorted to the refinery, according to footage posted on X by police. Another police video showed tanker trucks leaving the Foynes Port fuel hub in Limerick after protesters let them through.
Two weeks ago, the government approved a range of measures to cut fuel prices, including a temporary reduction in excise taxes on motor fuels, expansion of a rebate for truckers and bus operators that use diesel fuel, and extension of a program that helps low-income people with their heating costs.
But those reductions were quickly overtaken as international prices continued to rise.
Protests began with slow-moving convoys that restricted access to some of the busiest streets in Dublin and blocked fuel depots that supply half the country. Some protesters slept in their vehicles overnight, demanding that the government speak with them.
People took to the streets of Dublin in support of the protest Saturday and tractors slowly rolled through the streets of Cork.
Protesters shut down the road leading to Rosslare Europort, a major entry point for freight and passenger ferries in Wexford, and stranding cargo there. The port will reach capacity Sunday, Harbormaster Tom Curran told RTE.
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