Irish police clear demonstrators to reopen refinery as fuel protest causes chaos

DUBLIN (AP) — Police removed and arrested protesters on 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 clogging traffic led to closures of part of the main highway around Dublin, the capital, as well as sections of other major roadways.

Irish police Commissioner Justin Kelly said enforcement would be ramped up because protesters were illegally blockading critical infrastructure and endangering public safety because of the impact gas shortages could have on emergency response from paramedics and firefighters.

“These are blockades. They are not a legitimate form of protest,” Kelly said. “We gave the blockaders fair warning that we were moving to enforcement and they choose to ignore it and continue to hold the country to ransom.”

Protests call for caps on fuel prices

Government officials and a negotiator said progress was made on talks Saturday to resolve the dispute.

Ger Hyland, president of the Irish Road Haulage Association, who is acting on behalf of some protesters, said he empathizes with their plight.

“They’re hard-working business people, and they’re just trying to survive and keep their business afloat, the same as any of the rest of us here at these negotiations,” he said.

The protests began on 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 tax cuts.

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 on 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.”

No gas at the pumps

More than a third of the 1,500 service stations had run out of fuel on 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.

Police said arrests were made but did not provide a number for those detained.

A convoy of seven fuel delivery trucks from different companies was escorted to the refinery to load up and was later seen leaving. Another police video showed tanker trucks pulling out of 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 government representatives 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.