{"id":392442,"date":"2026-04-11T00:23:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T00:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/392442\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T00:23:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T00:23:18","slug":"ireland-on-precipice-of-turning-oil-away-taoiseach-warns-as-protests-continue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/392442\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland on \u2018precipice of turning oil away\u2019, Taoiseach warns as protests continue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland is on the \u201cprecipice of turning oil away from the country\u201d as protests over the rising cost of fuel continue, premier Micheal Martin has warned.<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach said the blockading of ports and a refinery by protesters was \u201cunconscionable\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, one of the leaders of the protests has insisted that the demonstrations will continue \u201cuntil we get a result\u201d.<\/p>\n

John Dallon said he had been refused entry to a meeting between Government ministers and representative bodies on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

It comes as gardai arrived at a demonstration at Ireland\u2019s only oil refinery in Cork and amid continuing concern that\u00a0Irish forecourts risk running dry after days-long blockades of major supply depots over rising fuel prices triggered by the war in Iran.<\/p>\n

Protests disrupting fuel supplies are continuing on Friday, but \u201cmore fuel\u201d deliveries are being allowed out, according to activists.<\/p>\n

Hauliers and agricultural contractors began a series of protests on Tuesday, which have grown from slow-moving convoys on motorways and restricted access to Dublin\u2019s busiest streets, to blockades of fuel depots that supply half the country.<\/p>\n

Access has been restricted to Ireland\u2019s oil refinery in Whitegate, Co Cork, as well as fuel depots in areas such as Galway City and Foynes, Co Limerick.<\/p>\n

It has raised concerns over panic buying at forecourts, some of which have run out of fuel, as well as impacts on emergency services and deliveries of key supplies for animal welfare on farms.<\/p>\n

Government leaders have condemned the protests as \u201cwrong\u201d, and said the fuel blockades were holding the country to \u201cransom\u201d.<\/p>\n

One minister of state, Niall Collins, said the Government was working on a package of measures to tackle inflation that would only be implemented \u201conce the blockade of our ports ends\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Irish army remains on standby to help gardai remove blockades at critical infrastructure, which includes fuel depots.<\/p>\n

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

Gardai have confirmed they are \u201cat the scene of an incident in Whitegate, Co Cork\u201d on Friday morning.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for protesters at Foynes Port said they would allow feed and five loads of fuel to be transported to frontline workers and hospitals, after allowing chemicals needed by Uisce Eireann through their blockade on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Mr Martin told RTE: \u201cWe are now on the precipice of turning oil away from the country in the middle of a global oil supply.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said \u201csomebody else will buy\u201d oil that is on a tanker off the coast of Galway if it cannot dock.<\/p>\n

Asked if Ireland is at risk of \u201closing all its oil supply\u201d, Mr Martin replied, \u201ccorrect\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIt is unconscionable, it\u2019s illogical, it is difficult to comprehend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Transport Minister Darragh O\u2019Brien said he was \u201cextremely concerned\u201d about fuel supplies not being dispersed across the country.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI\u2019m even more concerned when I get a message this morning from my colleague, Minister James Brown, about curtailment of fire and emergency services,\u201d he told Newstalk on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo-one can stand over that. We do not want to have to deal with this situation in a heavy-handed way and I don\u2019t think that will happen. What we need to do is to de-escalate this now, today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enterprise Minister Peter Burke said that the Government was working on a package of measures to combat inflation, which he said could be announced on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do believe we will have news on that, in terms of an intervention that will reduce inflation, that will try and reduce the price of groceries on the shelves for our consumers, for vulnerable people buying them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Government ministers are meeting with representative bodies of farmers and hauliers to discuss further support to deal with the high cost of fuel on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Protesters, including one of their spokesmen Mr Dallon, were refused entry to the meeting at the Department of Agriculture.<\/p>\n

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

Mr Dallon said protesters had been told by TDs he would be permitted to attend the meeting but that he was turned away when he arrived.<\/p>\n

He said \u201cwhat we really wanted was to be able to step down the protest\u201d and attend the meeting to \u201cget results\u201d, adding \u201cwe had demands\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked if the protests would continue, Mr Dallon said: \u201cThey\u2019ll continue until we get a result.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fine Gael TD Peter Roche said he was \u201cfrustrated\u201d with the response from government ministers after attempting to facilitate a meeting between protesters and ministers.<\/p>\n

He said he believed, as a result of conversations he had with \u201csenior people within the government\u201d, that protest spokespeople would be allowed to attend the meeting.<\/p>\n

But told RTE\u2019s Drivetime a minister attending the meeting told him it would be against \u201call the rules and guidelines of the Dail and the department\u201d for the protesters to join the meeting.<\/p>\n

Ger Hyland, president of the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA), has offered to act as an \u201chonest broker\u201d between protesters and the Government.<\/p>\n

He said he had been in contact with the protesters \u201cthrough intermediaries\u201d and is available to meet some of them before the meeting and take their concerns to the Government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland is on the \u201cprecipice of turning oil away from the country\u201d as protests over the rising cost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,13308,63615,171749,156539,1556,61,60,172549,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-392442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-defence-forces","10":"tag-fuel-prices","11":"tag-fuel-protests","12":"tag-fuels-for-ireland","13":"tag-helen-mcentee","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-john-dallon","17":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392442","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=392442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}