LAST UPDATE | 9 Apr

FUELS FOR IRELAND CEO Kevin McPartlan has warned that 50% of Irish households and businesses will not have access to fuel if the depot blockades continue.

Two depots in Galway and Limerick have been blockaded as well as the Cork oil refinery  since the fuel protests began on Tuesday.

McPartlan was speaking on Newstalk Breakfast this morning and he said “about 50% of all of the fuel that is sold in Ireland is going through those three facilities”.

“Fifty percent of households in Ireland, 50% of businesses in Ireland are not going to be able to get fuel if this is allowed to continue.”

He also said that other facilities, like the one in Dublin, will not be able account for the shortage in supply. 

“He don’t have twice as many trucks in Dublin. We don’t have twice as many drivers to be able to just pick up the slack” he said.

In this scenario, McPartlan said “it’s going to get into prioritisation” of supply.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said “some forecourts will have no fuel this morning”.

He told RTÉ that the protesters at Whitegate refinery in Cork and Foynes depot in Limerick made no attempt at “meaningful negotiations” prior to their demonstrations.

“For people who said that they’re concerned about the price and so on of fuel, to now be denying people access to fuel is beyond any logical comprehension,” he said.

‘Action needed’

McPartlan said urgent action is needed to remove these blockades and “the guards standing back, leaning on squad cars watching this isn’t what we need here”. 

He said though he has “huge sympathy for the issues the protesters are raising” gardaí  need to move beyond the “engagement phase” into some “sort of enforcement” to prevent these protests from causing supply shortages.

According to McPartlan the protesters are “really going to badly impact the communities that they claim to represent if they prevent them getting fuel”.

The protests are now in their third day and Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan has advised fuel price protesters to move their vehicles, as the Defence Forces will be deployed to help gardaí manage the chaos today.