{"id":388033,"date":"2026-04-08T12:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T12:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/388033\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T12:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T12:10:09","slug":"price-of-fuel-costing-lives-say-protesters-causing-gridlock-in-dublin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/388033\/","title":{"rendered":"Price of fuel costing lives, say protesters causing gridlock in Dublin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Protesters with tractors have caused gridlock in Dublin city centre over rising fuel costs caused by the war in Iran.<\/p>\n

Several tractors were parked down O\u2019Connell Street, and O\u2019Connell Bridge was cordoned off, as farmers and other fuel-dependent workers blocked the Irish capital\u2019s main road for the second day in a row.<\/p>\n

The protesters are calling for a cap on kerosene and for the increase in the carbon tax in May to be abandoned.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the protest group said there were 28 such protests across Ireland and that if protesters go home today or on Thursday, they would be back next Tuesday, when the Dail returns.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will hopefully go home, but the word from other groups around the country is that if they go home today or tomorrow, they\u2019re back next Tuesday. Government is sitting next Tuesday,\u201d said James Geoghegan.<\/p>\n

A leaders\u2019 meeting between Irish premier Micheal Martin, Irish deputy premier and finance minister Simon Harris, and Minister of State and independent TD Sean Canney was held in Government Buildings on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, around two dozen protesters stood on O\u2019Connell Bridge as a handful of tractors remained parked on O\u2019Connell Street overnight.<\/p>\n

There was some tense exchanges between Dubliners walking through the city\u2019s main thoroughfare and the protesters, with one woman telling the protesters that they had the fuel to drive up to Dublin so they should drive home.<\/p>\n

One protester was overheard saying that they had \u201cpedestrianised\u201d the city centre as the Green Party had wanted.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

James Geoghegan, a spokesman for the protesters and a contractor from Co Westmeath, said they would \u201cnot go home broke\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t go home without a result. We simply can\u2019t afford to go home,\u201d he told the Press Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came up broke and there\u2019s no point going home broke.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about Dubliners who may be unhappy with the disruption, he said \u201cthe price of fuel is costing lives\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThey might be struggling, but do they realise what a struggle actually really is?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not blocking emergency services, we\u2019re not blocking people going to hospital appointments or anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to be in anybody\u2019s way or cause any trouble to anybody medically or cause an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the measures taken by the Government in March did not make a difference \u201cworth talking about\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need (the government) to listen and act. There\u2019s no point making a promise. Where do we cash in a promise?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said in Spain, white diesel costs between 1.50 and 1.70 euro a litre, compared to 2.20 euro a litre in Ireland.<\/p>\n

Mr Geoghegan said that he employs four people and his fuel bill will go up to 70,000 euro this year at current prices.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI\u2019ve been booked to dig out foundations on two one-off single houses in the countryside, and we\u2019d get maybe 5,000-10,000 euro to dig out of that job, which bankrolls us.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when we dig out the foundation, then in come the concrete lorries with concrete, that\u2019s them making money. Then the blockers start laying blocks, that\u2019s them making money.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll this is putting tax into the system. Now these houses are being stopped. I\u2019m losing work, the lads laying the blocks are going to be on the dole. It\u2019s a domino effect.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Government reduced the price of fuel and keep everybody building, keep everything working and keep the contractors in business, it\u2019ll be far better for the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cFine Gael and Fianna Fail needn\u2019t go back to rural Ireland ever looking for vote again, it\u2019s as simple as that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe silence of the Healy-Raes is unbelievable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an awful pity the election is so far away, if there was election in the next six months, this would be solved last night.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

John Dallon, a farmer and agriculture contractor from Co Kildare, said the Government was \u201cwell able to dig money out of the ground when they need it\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government are giving away millions and millions to countries at war. Now, no disrespect to them, countries at war or any of the nationalities, but the buck stops here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look after the people in your own country, the island of Ireland first, and when them people are looked after, and our own economy is sorted out, then help out the other countries that are in need.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Protesters with tractors have caused gridlock in Dublin city centre over rising fuel costs caused by the war…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2127,615,580,11137,9658,61,11829,60,1196,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-388033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-construction","9":"tag-dublin","10":"tag-energy","11":"tag-farmers","12":"tag-fuel","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-iran","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-middle-east","17":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}