Defence Forces called in to assist gardaí dealing with fuel protests
James Cox
8.30am
The statement from the Minister for Justice reads: "The Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan has confirmed that it is well established in law that the Defence Forces may assist An Garda Síochána in aid to the civil power, when requested and when required. On each occasion that the support of the Defence Forces is required, An Garda Síochána issues a form C70 to the Defence Forces to request their assistance.
"The blocking of critical national infrastructure will not be permitted to continue and the assistance of the Defence Forces has been requested. Large vehicles blocking critical infrastructure will be removed. Owners of those vehicles should remove them immediately this morning and should not complain later about any damage caused to those vehicles during removal.
"Denying people access to fuel and clean water is an unacceptable interference in the most basic of human rights."
7.49am
The Defence Forces have been officially called in to deal with fuel protests across the country.
Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan has confirmed the Army responded to a request from gardaí to help remove large vehicles blocking critical infrastructure like oil and water facilities.
It comes on foot of an official request for assistance by An Garda Síochána.
In a statement Jim O'Callaghan said owners of vehicles should remove them immediately this morning, and should not complain later if those vehicles are damaged during removal.
7.36am
Fuels for Ireland chief executive Kevin McPartland has said that the blockade of refineries in Foynes, Galway and Whitegate that the 50 per cent of all of the fuel that is sold in Ireland going through those three facilities is now not getting to forecourts.
“That means 50 per cent of households in Ireland, 50 percent of businesses in Ireland are not going to be able to get fuel if this is allowed to continue,” he told Newstalk Breakfast with Anton Savage.
“I find it interesting that the Taoiseach talks about a national sabotage and then we don't seem to be responding to that. To me, if you have the head of government talking about a national sabotage, then that would demand some sort of response from the state. And the Gardaí standing back leaning on squad cars, watching this, isn't what we need here. We need to ensure that people can get fuel.”
McPartland warned that if the blockades continue much longer then soon “scores” of forecourts around the country will run out of fuel.
Dublin Port needed to remain accessible, he said as it is the port that supplies Dublin airport. There needed to be “some sort of enforcement” by gardaí.
7.28am
Dublin Bus spokesperson Blake Boland has warned commuters of the “massive disruption” again this morning and has spoken of efforts to transport people as close as possible to the city centre.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, Boland said that Dublin Bus was creating temporary terminuses around the city which allowed buses run in as far as they could then turning around.
The protestors in the city centre were “splintering out” with two or three people blocking off certain junctions not allowing buses through, he said.
“So what we've been doing is making diversions on those cross-city routes, but that's not really possible at this stage, to a large extent. So what we're doing now is we're creating what we might call temporary terminuses.
“We're running buses from the outskirts of the city in as close as we can get them before they risk them being trapped by the protesters, turning those buses around and operating them back out. And that's particularly important on those cross-city routes. (So it helps us to avoid buses getting trapped in the city centre and at least operating as much of that route as we can.”
Boland added that Express services had also been cancelled with the purpose of using those resources to “close the gaps".
His advice to commuters this morning was to keep up to date on what services were operating through the Dublin Bus website, the TFI website and social media.
7am
Today marks the third day of demonstrations against what protestors say is Government inaction on the fuel crisis.
Truckers and farmers blocked access to ports across the country overnight and plan to take convoys to the cities once again.
Organisers say they'll set off from various locations including Limerick, Sligo, Portumna, Portlaoise, Cork, Waterford and Tullamore from 7am, with more traffic disruption expected on motorways and in towns and cities.
The demonstrations continued into Wednesday with escalations including the blockading of fuel depots and the Whitegate oil refinery in Co Cork, a move described by Taoiseach Micheál Martin as “an act of national sabotage”.
Other Coalition figures, including Tánaiste and Finance Minister Simon Harris, as well as Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan, emphasised the importance of access to fuel depots and warned of consequences for unlawful activity.
Martin also said it was “not acceptable” to turn Dublin’s main thoroughfare, O’Connell Street, “into a car park” as protesters used tractors to substantially clog up traffic in the centre of the capital.
