Mary Lou McDonald urges Government to ‘pick up the phone’ and talk to protesters
By Bairbre Holmes, Press Association
Mary Lou McDonald has urged the Government to “pick up the phone” and speak with protesters blocking fuel depots and motorways in Ireland.
The Sinn Féin leader was speaking to the press on the third day of demonstrations over rising fuel prices, which have brought parts of the country to a standstill.
Asked about the decision by the Minister for Justice to call in the Defence Forces to assist gardaí, she said: “The decision that needs to be made is for Micheal Martin and Simon Harris to lift the phone.
“Why on earth is the Government escalating this further? That’s not called for.
“What is called for now is respect, engagement and acknowledgement.”
Asked if she supported the protesters, she replied: “I support measures to make it possible for businesses to survive, for people to function, for farmers, for hauliers, for contractors and for others to go about their daily lives.”
She added: “I’m saying to the protesters what I am saying to Government – I don’t want to see disruption.
“I live in this town, in this city, I don’t want to see the disruption that we’re experiencing.
“I also don’t want to see people sleeping in tractors or other vehicles overnight.
“I don’t want to see anybody under the kind of effort and the pressure that people are suffering.”
McDonald said her party had spent “weeks in the Dail” raising the rising cost of fuel “again and again”, and had given the Government “chapter and verse” about “what was happening in people’s homes, in people’s businesses, the pressure that people were under”.
