This week’s fuel protest brought the country to a halt on Tuesday, with many of Ireland’s main towns and cities, including Dublin, at a standstill for much of the day – and on into Wednesday.

There is a genuine fear about what the future could hold for farmers, farm contractors, hauliers and businesses for the next few months and this fear and frustration has spilled over the last number of days.

The organisers were able to mobilise hundreds of vehicles at relatively short notice and the protest, while hastily organised, went off with no hiccups or emergencies.

A 2.5 hour journey from Dublin to Cork ended up closer to four hours on Tuesday, and while anybody close to self-employed business people, farmers and contractors would have sympathised with the protestors, some motorists failed to see the merit of bringing the general public into the argument.

The reference made from the stage during the speeches on Dublin’s O’Connell street to “emptying the immigration centres” as being a solution to our problems should not have been made, and it dragged a genuine protest centred around fuel prices into something more sinister.

This element divided some that were protesting for action on fuel prices and nothing else. Some of the social media coverage of the event also saw some characters jumping on the bandwagon to forward their own political agenda, far removed from any fuel concerns of farmers or agricultural contractors.

The protestors appear resolute that they are staying until the Government listens. One of the demands is to get a cap put on the price of fuel.

This extends to white diesel and kerosene, which of course will be harder to get, given the wider remit of the request.

Merit

There is an argument in looking for the temporary removal of the carbon tax or reduced excise duty over the coming months, and the Government will have to act in some way to avoid further unrest in the coming months.

While the general public may tolerate a day or two of disruption, anything further will likely heap pressure on politicians to act.

Further travel disruption could also run the risk of turning the general public against the protest and losing the goodwill that currently exists.

The response so far from the Government has been muted, with very little sign of any solution to the issues being protested about. Things are moving quickly, however.

An already volatile situation in the Middle East has the potential to become even more unstable; a solution could be found quickly should the need present itself.

The Government also makes the argument that it has already made available a €250m package to reduce fuel prices, albeit negated by further rises in fuel prices since the package was introduced.

One of the biggest problems is that nobody knows where this is going to end and finding a solution to a problem that you don’t know the size of is difficult. However, this shouldn’t be used as an excuse for inaction.

The Government has made the argument that there is already a lower tax on green diesel, and that has left little wiggle room for the Government to reduce taxes any further.

One thing for definite is that reviewing the situation isn’t an option and quick action will be needed to avoid further unrest.

Given the number of protests that have taken place so far in 2026, the Government needs to look at its communication strategy to bring farmers and contractors back on side.

A fodder support scheme as proposed by the Irish Farmers Association should be considered.

There is genuine concern on some farms, particularly on smaller drystock farms, about the ability to source and pay for sufficient fertiliser supplies to grow a sufficient fodder stock during the next two to three peak growing months of the year.

The support package could also go some way to offset increased diesel costs.

The scheme was first introduced in 2022 in light of the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia. The scheme had a fund of €56m allocated to it and paid out €100/ha over 537,000 ha applied for under the scheme.

It was a very simple scheme capped at a payment of 10ha per farmer, with 70,000 farmers applying for the scheme to help them cope with increased fertiliser costs. The rollout of the scheme avoided any fodder shortage in 2023.