Fuel protest about prices

Airports are busier than ever. Is it only posh people that go on holidays abroad nowadays?

I wouldn't overthink this. It's farmers and truck drivers. It should be easy to lure them away from the city centre with sandwiches and flasks of tea.

exactly! People in their comfortable bubbles, wouldn't even know what a farm looked like, what a fishing trawler looks like, what hard outdoor work looks like. Yet these people consume their milk, fish, vegetables quite happily, not caring a jot where it comes from as long as their supermarket supplies it. Micheal Martin's answer is to bring in the army rather than engage with them.

These protestors are calm, quiet, dignified, no loudspeakers, just determined. Good on them. People on this thread trying to discredit them in any way possible. Smugness personified.

People like you make me laugh, you'd swear we lived in a coven where only the farmers produce what we eat. Anyway they made their point 2 days ago, as they have now entered a 3rd day of disrupting everyone, and blockading fuel terminals, I hope they get what's coming to them.

I'd say you got a laugh out of that in your mind, even if nobody else did.

the answer here lies with our Government, but they are happy to see people pitted against each other. Anger should be directed solely at Micheal Martin's feet.

The beal bocht is as strong as ever.

The maximum VRT a farmer pays on a tractor is €200.

The maximum motor tax a farmer pays on a tractor is €120

Farmers pay bugger all duties on Agri diesel

Farmers receive €2bn annually in subsidies.

Agri prices rose 15% last year.

Tractors are NCT exempt

I was wondering how they can afford all these new tractors.

Because the taxpayer pays for them..

Tillage Capital Investment Scheme (TCIS): Grants for tractors and tillage-related machinery at 40% grant rate, with an individual ceiling of €90,000

Low Emission Slurry Spreading Equipment Scheme (LESS): For farms investing in environmentally friendly slurry spreaders and related machinery, 60% grant rate, €90,000 ceiling. While not exclusively for tractors, larger tractors may be included if used with approved spreading equipment

Young Farmer Capital Investment Scheme (YFCIS): Young farmers may receive support for purchasing tractors and equipment with 60% grant rate and €90,000 ceiling

Theres no Union for Martin to negotiate with. Its just the standard confused mess of eejits.

Seamus wants cheaper fuel

Jim wants immigrants removed

Larry wants trans people fixed

Tom doesn't know what a tracker mortgage is.

Why aren’t they blocking and protesting outside the U.S., Israeli and Iranian embassies, they started this s…t show!

Oh for sure the govt have been asleep at the wheel on this. Radio silence on Tuesday and they could have gone on the airwaves yesterday and agreed to drop fuel levies on the condition that the farmers went home. They'd make the money back in a few weeks with the fines to be issued.

Today their solution is to send the army in, which, of course, nobody agrees with!

Likewise, blocking Foynes, Whitegate and Galway, starving the people of the fuel that they need, is not going to create friends.

It's not the government blocking the fuel depots.

That's the action that's tipped things over the edge for most.

People can probably live with rolling road blocks, annoying as they are. But blocking fuel depots and supplies critical to the country, nope red line

Paid out of the carbon tax they want eliminated, Irish farmers can access several subsidies and grants for installing solar panels on their farms:

TAMS 3 Grant: Farmers can claim up to 60% grant aid on solar PV systems, with a maximum grant of €90,000 per holding.

SEAI Non-Domestic Microgen Grant: This scheme provides financial assistance for solar PV installations, covering systems up to 1000kWp.

Battery Support: Farmers can also include battery storage in their solar systems, with grants covering up to 50% of the system's size.

Government Support: The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine offers generous grant support for solar PV installations, making it more affordable for farmers.

I don't disagree with someone clearing our infrastructure, be it the Gardai or army.

[Raises hand] I'm somebody.

And since all sorts of social media have been used as an indicator of one thing or another, sure I might as well join in so, I'm not alone if you look elsewhere.

I will bite

I am a retired now and quite comfortable thank you . I missed a physio appointment yesterday due to traffic . I will live to attend another day .
But I am fully aware of the difficulties people around me are facing with this protest . I am very much in favour of organised protests and would be in support of the right to protest

But when it impacts negatively on the very people who are already pushed to their limit then it becomes a very different issue

Ordinary people are stuggling aleady and now some are missing hospital appointments , MRIs , diagnostic exams , much needed care .. Ambulances being impacted and emergency services slowed

No protest should ever ever impede emergency services or people in emergency situations . And inconveniencing the public so much is never going to gain support . One day was bearable , two started to annoy , three will anger the public as they really don’t need this added hassle to an already stressed life

That's the agri business

Milk prices go up for a few years, everyone tries to get into it, then prices reduce

Beef is the current honey pot and so every farmer is trying to get into that, and guess what will happen? Prices will reduce

Has been on repeat for decades