Ahead of a motion of no confidence, Opposition parties accuse the Government of attacking them as part of the “Blame Game” in the fallout from national fuel protests. The government says no group should be allowed to hold the country to ransom.
“Micheál Martin and Simon Harris’s intransigence brought this country to the brink,” the Meath West TD said. “The stubbornness of this government led to petrol pumps running dry for the first time since the 1980s. The arrogance of this government has led to the highest level of civil unrest since the Right to Water protests.”
“The strategy of Martin and Harris to refuse to speak to these protestors was the main cause of the problem. He refused because he said they had no representatives. This protest existed because these protestors felt that they had no representatives.”
“We met with the protestors. The vast majority were hard working, respectful and reasonable people whose jobs and livelihoods were being lost because of over taxation. Many of these people, had never taken to the streets before. If the government had met these people, they would have realised this too,” the Aontú leader said.
“The Taoiseach singled me out as ‘marshalling’ who got fuel and who did not. This is not true. On Saturday morning I was negotiating with the protestors and with the Gardaí to start the flow of fuel out of Whitegate in a peaceful manner. The protestors were trying to create goodwill and to prevent confrontation and to create the space for dialogue. I tried to facilitate this. It fell on deaf ears and the government brought in the Gardaí and the use of force. The government pepper sprayed people before they were willing to speak to them,” he continued.
“We said very clearly from the start that when these protests were in place we would do our utmost to fight for a fair and speedy resolution of the crisis. We worked tirelessly, with the protestors, to bring about just and fair solution. No one wanted to see these blockades. We wanted to see a reduction in the massive taxes on fuel and dialogue with the protestors so everyone could go home,” An Teachta Tóibín added.
At a four-hour Fianna Fáil parliamentry meeting yesterday, anger and frustration was expressed at the handling of the crisis by party leadership. The Journal reported that:
Martin told his party that he fully recognised the anger and frustration of people dealing with increased costs, costs which had increased over several years as a result of different international incidents.
He said the right to protest was sacrosanct but blockading ports and refineries could not be allowed.
He added that the fundamental right to travel could not be limited by any group and people had to be able to access appointments, their prescriptions, cancer treatment and their place of work.
Independent Ireland’s Michael Fitzmaurice also accused the Government of ignoring warnings about protests from key sectors and “failing to act”.
“It was very clear that the Government had many opportunities over the last two weeks to resolve the ongoing issues, but instead of making a phone call, instead of introducing a package of measures, they chose to play hardball and escalate the situation with their rhetoric, refusal to engage and decided to bring the army on to the streets. That is why Independent Ireland will be voting no confidence in this Government tomorrow,” he said.
Debating the protests with Michael Collins of Independent Ireland, Fine Gael’s Barry Ward defended the government’s stance saying no group could hold the country to ransom.