THE LAST FEW days have been a flashpoint for people who have been put under extraordinary pressure by the successive crises of recent years. 

This was one reflection from Taoiseach Micheál Martin during Sunday’s press conference in Government Buildings.

Mentioning Covid, Brexit and the war in Ukraine during his opening statement, he acknowledged that the outbreak of war in the Middle East has mounted further pressure on the backs of families.

“It builds up,” Martin said.

Later, on RTÉ’s Nine O’Clock news, he repeated this, stating that people have faced “a lot of shocks” in recent years.

“I understand that,” the Taoiseach said, noting that this is why the government is now taking measures to try and reduce pressures on families.

Acknowledging the level of “anger of the last week”, Martin spoke about the protesters who brought large parts of the country to a halt this week.

“I would say there was many different people involved in the protest, many. Quite a number of genuine people involved, no question. But equally, there were elements there that were there to make trouble,” he said.

All fair comments for the Taoiseach to make, but it felt like the reflections were too late in being said.

It took him almost a week to acknowledge that the protesters may have had a point at all.

And as the week went on, it became apparent that government parties had misread the temperature of the public when it came to the support for the protests.

Public support for protests

This bore out in an Ireland Thinks poll in the Sunday Independent over the weekend, which found that of the 1,000 voters polled, 56% supported the actions of the protesters, with 38% opposed.

Drilling down into those figures revealed even more – and perhaps explained the group-think mentality of the government.

Only 18% of Fine Gael voters backed the protests, according to the poll, with just 14% of Fianna Fáil voters supporting them.

Support for the fuel protests was overwhelming among backers of Independent Ireland (99%), Aontú (94%) and Sinn Féin (96%), with 78% of independent voters also backing the protests.

Simon Harris and Martin both had strong words to say about the “self-appointed” protest leaders in recent days, with the Taoiseach arguing that nobody has a right to blockade, and that protesters would face the full rigour of the law if they continued their actions. 

Martin said there are many ways to make a point publicly, but he argued that no self-appointed group has a right to prevent emergency services from operating normally.

Harris said he hoped that the decisions taken by government demonstrated “that if we work collaboratively, we can make the right interventions at the right time to help people right across this country”.

The problem for the government is that many people don’t agree with this perspective. Many feel the points they have been making publicly about the cost-of-living for weeks, if not months, have not been listened to.

They also obviously didn’t agree that the right interventions were made at the right time, as these protests kicked off just a week or so after government announced its first excise cuts package.

The mantra of “we are keeping things under review”, which was repeated ad nauseam, did not wash. People wanted specifics and timelines of when pressure would be alleviated.

Opening up the public purse to assuage anger

Now, following a week of chaos around the country, the government has had to open the public purse to the tune of over half a billion euro to assuage the anger of the farmers, hauliers and agricultural contractors, and those who support them. 

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While the government will breathe a sigh of relief, having seen off one of this coalition’s most high stakes weeks (albeit it is now nearly half a billion out of pocket), there will be no reprieve in the week ahead, or for the months ahead, for that matter.

The first problem it faces is the motion of no confidence being tabled by Sinn Féin in the Dáil this week. 

It has the backing of other opposition parties too.

Asked on RTÉ News this evening if he is worried, the Taoiseach said he was not.

The government will be putting down a confidence motion in itself, to meet Sinn Féin’s motion “head on”, he said.

But there are bigger problems on the horizon for this government.

The €505m package has come out of the government’s surplus, the Tánaiste explained today.

“Extra items of spending have consequences,” he said, stating that it could very well have an impact on Budget 2027.

With promises of tax cuts, changes in inheritance rules, and plenty of other asks to come from ministers, there is a very real possibility that these emergency measures, and any future emergency measures to come, take too much of the pie.

Uncertainty is the name of the game right now, which is something no government ever wants. “From a governmental point of view, it is extremely concerning that, as we announce these measures, the situation in the Middle East is very, very volatile and uncertain,” the Taoiseach said.

Apart from the mauling the government faces in the Dáil next week, Budget 2027 and the unpredictability of the future are the bigger concerns ahead – not to mention the disconnect between how the government sees these protests and how the public sees them.