WITH THE LIFTING of blockades this weekend, it may still take about “ten days” for normality to resume at filling stations according to the country’s fuel industry body.

Close to 900 forecourts have run dry as of this morning amid the nationwide fuel protests, comprising more than half of the sector, but moves taken over the past 24 hours have seen blockades ended by gardaí.

Kevin McPartlan, chief executive of Fuels for Ireland, told The Journal that the reopening of the country’s only oil refinery in Whitegate, Co Cork will ease some pressure, but he warned that it will take time for forecourts to be refilled.

“We’re looking at around ten days to get back to normal. The situation is evolving very rapidly but distribution still isn’t at normal levels,” McPartlan said.

Critically, this timeline is reliant on the blockade of critical fuel depots in Galway harbour and Foynes, Co Limerick being lifted.

The garda public order unit is currently trying to end the blockade in Galway, while negotiations continue in Foynes.

“There are two terminals completely out of action. As things stand if those two were opened today we would still not be back to normal for about ten days,” McPartlan said.

“The problem is that it’s not that a switch flicks and everything goes back to normal – it’s a gradual return to normality.”

Even with the reopening of Whitegate, McPartlan said that oil tankers need to enter and leave the refinery in a convoy due to the remaining protests, meaning that it will take more time than it would normally to distribute fuel across the country’s network.

Around 20 fuel trucks were able to enter the oil refinery yesterday afternoon after gardaí succeeded in ending the blockade.

It’s understood that a further approximately 20 tankers were able to enter the refinery today.

The fuel trucks entered the facility under garda escort after gardaí asked protesters for the keys to their vehicles so they could be moved without the use of the Defence Forces heavy-lift vehicle which was at the site.

This has made moving trucks in and out of the refinery “far less efficient”, McPartlan explained.

“We’re seeing 7 or 8 trucks pooled together to get in and out, so now a truck needs to wait for seven others to fill up before leaving. We need to get back to normal levels still,” the fuels boss added.

McPartlan further welcomed an exemption that will allow the industry’s drivers to work extra hours during the coming eight days to try and increase distribution.

This will see the daily driving time, including rest periods, upped from nine hours to 11 hours for two days this week.

With reporting by Niall O’Connor