Panic buying of fuel in Sligo as third day of protests sees queues at service stations

By Philip Rooney, The Sligo Champion

With protests continuing for a third day in Sligo town in relation to fuel costs, queues were forming across forecourts as fears spread garages may soon run out of petrol and diesel.

There was a noticeable escalation of the fuel protest in Sligo on Thursday with more lorries and tractors joining in than in the previous two days.

The protest concentrated once gain the main artery through Sligo across Hughes Bridge with long tailbacks on the N4 and N15 in and out of Sligo.

Heavy volumes of slow moving vehicles brought traffic to a standstill throughout the day, Some of the protesters had travelled from Donegal and Leitrim.

There was a clear impact on businesses in Sligo town with it being much quieter than normal with many people opting not to come into town including workers opting to work from home.

One interested observer as the cavalcade made its way through town, via the inner relief road, was Sinn Féin Cllr Arthur Gibbons who expressed the view that those participating in the protests are representing not just themselves and their own industries, but every working person in the country.

Observing the protests from outside the Sinn Fein offices, Cllr Gibbons insisted the protesters were taking action on behalf of everybody and they must be listened to by the government.

“People are angry but remember this much, we have a protest that is there and everybody has the right to protest. The protest that is happening out there is a protest for everybody, it is not just for truckers and farmers, it is everybody. They are representing everybody, the person that has to get up and go to work in the morning and try and fill the tank in their car to go to work or provide heating within their homes and the price of fuel is out through the roof.

"We know that the government has made a small cutback on the vat but what people have to realise is while diesel is €2.20 a litre at the pump, the government gets €1.20 of that in tax and the government needs to really look at this whole crisis that is going on because it is a serious crisis. They need to look at it and they need to sit around the table with the farmers, the truckers the business people in this country and come up with a financial solution to resolve this problem.

“We have to guarantee that when the oil prices drop that they go back to a right price. People might not realise it either but we are caught in a situation where we are going to be subjected to another 6% of carbon tax, that is something that should not be considered. The carbon tax, right from day one was taking from the pockets of the ordinary people.”

Looking at how a resolution may be found, Cllr Gibbons insisted no agreement will be reached without the government engaging in dialogue with the protestors but he did stress the need for calm to prevail as he expressed his wish the protests do not descend into anarchy.

"Anarchy is something that has no place anywhere, that is where you get someone going out and doing malicious damage to someone’s property or targeting members of An Garda Siochana or something like that. Let everybody work together on this, I feel myself that the only ones who can resolve this in a decent manner is the government and they need to sit down and it needs to be done through dialogue and negotiation.”

Article Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.