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LAST UPDATE | 8 Apr
TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN has condemned the blockade of an oil refinery in Cork as “an act of national sabotage”.
Protesters demonstrating against the high cost of fuel resulting from the US-Israeli war on Iran blockaded fuel terminals in Foynes and Galway today, as well as the Whitegate Oil Refinery in Cork.
At the Whitegate refinery, tractors sitting in the access road blocked lorries from coming and going today.
Whitegate is Ireland’s only oil refinery and provides around 40% of the country’s fuel.
In a statement, Martin said the blockade “will directly impact the people of Ireland”.
“It makes absolutely no sense in the fuel crisis we are currently facing,” he said.
“It is beyond belief that people would seek to deny people around the country access to vital fuels. Businesses and people’s livelihoods depend on this fuel. It is an outrage.”
Tánaiste Simon Harris also condemned the blocking of access to fuel infrastructure by protesters.
“The blocking of the distribution of fuel is a sinister and despicable attack on our economy and our society,” Harris said in a statement this evening.
“This is not a lawless country. The laws of the land must and will be applied without fear.
“At a time of a major global energy crisis, blocking fuel from getting to people who badly need it is appalling in every sense and inflicts damage on our country and on individual people and businesses. It cannot be tolerated.”
The first truck denied entry to Whitegate Refinery as part of the National Fuel Crisis.
— Damien Sreenan (@damiensreenan) April 8, 2026
Tractors have blocked entry to any trucks but are allowing workers to leave #FuelProtestIreland #cantaffordtomove #fuelprotest pic.twitter.com/c0WyBXfiR0
Fuels for Ireland said earlier it was both “disappointed” and “frustrated” by the garda response to protesters who are blocking access to fuel terminals in Foynes and Galway.
There is significant disruption on roads in Dublin city and elsewhere as protests on rising fuel costs continue for a second day.
But as well as causing traffic and public transport issues, protesters have also blocked access to fuel terminals in Foynes and Galway.
Fuels for Ireland CEO Kevin McPartlan told The Journal that he has “great empathy for those who feel Government can, and must, intervene to mitigate the impact of high prices across global fuel markets”.
However, he said “some of the tactics employed by protesters have been ill-judged”.
He added that access to fuel terminals in Foynes and Galway “has been totally obstructed”.
“This not only prevents delivery of fuel to forecourts, but, more importantly, by blocking emergency services access, threatens the health and safety of staff in those premises,” said McPartlan.
He said he was “disappointed that An Garda Síochána allowed this to occur”.
In a statement to The Journal, a garda spokesperson said An Garda Síochána “does not comment on remarks made by third parties”.
Meanwhile, the garda spokesperson confirmed that vehicle access to these fuel terminals is “currently impacted by ongoing protest activity”.
“Gardaí are at the scene and are working with those present to resolve the situation,” added the spokesperson.
Meanwhile, speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, McPartlan said protests at the fuel terminals could disrupt supply at forecourts today.
He also said there are reports that at least one forecourt has already run out of fuel.
“That’s clearly very concerning,” said McPartlan, “because some forecourts get deliveries more than once a day and we don’t want a situation where forecourts run out of stock so we’re trying to manage that very carefully.”
McPartlan said there is “no fundamental threat to supply” and that there are “completely normal stock levels in the terminals and all the normal logistics”.
“The problem is a short-lived one, we hope, and that these protests will be resolved.
“I appeal to protesters to make sure they don’t cripple the entire country by stopping fuel supplies getting to forecourts.”
John Morley is the presenter of Galway Talks on Galway Bay FM.
He told RTÉ that the protesters yesterday wanted to “get attention to their cause via the rolling protest, but they’ve called off that element and it’s very much targeting the fuel depot”.
Morley said protesters told him “they want to stop all the oil coming in and out of Galway, to bring the Government to its knees to act on their demands”.
He added that some of the hauliers protesting told him that “it was cheaper to pay themselves and their five drivers to park up at the fuel depot, than it would have been for them to be hauling large pieces of freight around Galway and the country yesterday”.
Morley added: “Hauliers, in particular, made the point that they’re due to claim back their rebates and different things from Government around 16 April – a lot of them could be going out of business and seeing that it’s not viable come that date.”
The Galway Bay FM presenter added that a lot of those protesting “feel they are not being listened to by Government” and that there appears to be a lot of support locally for the protests.
“If you had a hospital appointment yesterday, then you would be aggrieved and we did get that sense from people on the ground, but there was a vast amount of support.
“You saw people waving at the trucks and tractors as they came into the city as well, it is very much a mixed bag.”
Morley also said protesters informed him that the decision to stop the rolling protests and instead protest outside the fuel terminal in Galway was done “to keep the public on side here in the city”.
With reporting from David Mac Redmond
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