LAST UPDATE | 12 Apr

GOVERNMENT WILL ANNOUNCE its fuel package measures later this evening at the conclusion of a Cabinet meeting.

It follows a rare emergency Cabinet meeting called as Government prepares to sign off on measures it hopes will bring protests over fuel costs to an end.

It remains to be seen if the coalition’s financial supports will convince protesters to call off their actions before the return of schools tomorrow adds to pressure on the roads.

In a statement last night, Tánaiste and Finance Minister Simon Harris said “significant progress” was expected today to address the crisis.

“The Government is eager to work sector by sector to try and make real progress on some of the very significant challenges that people are facing,” the Fine Gael leader said.

Harris added that the fuel support package was the subject of “intensive work” during meetings held yesterday with representative groups from the transport, agriculture and fisheries sectors.

Participants – largely led by hauliers, farmers, and agricultural workers – began separate but coordinated actions on Tuesday with slow-moving convoys and outright stoppages on major motorways, as well as the blockades of critical infrastructure.

Those sectors have called on the Government to take urgent action to reduce fuel costs which they say are at unsustainable levels and will lead to people going out of business.

The protests, which have strangled fuel distribution across the country, prompted an escalated policing response that resulted in several arrests and public order gardaí deployed in Dublin, Cork and Galway.