Last week, when Irish farmers and hauliers began their protest about the rising cost of fuel, they were dismissed as far-right by the government and much of the mainstream media. The protesters blocked O’Connell Street, motorways, the M50 (the equivalent of the M25, and just as horrid) and Ireland’s only oil refinery, as Liz Walsh writes here.
Threatening to set the media regulator on media outlets is downright authoritarian
Yet in the end the mud-slinging failed and the Irish government was forced to put together a support package on Sunday to help farmers and hauliers, in addition to €250 million worth of measures announced around three weeks ago.
This was an Irish government omnishambles. The farce began when minister for justice Jim O’Callaghan reached for the Tommy Robinson card, saying he was influencing the protesters. According to our politicians, those who work the land from dusk to dawn, and the hauliers who bring the produce to our supermarkets, cannot think for themselves – Robinson must be manipulating them.
In reality, farmers and hauliers could see that they were being fleeced by the Irish government’s outrageous tax regime on fuel, and its stubborn intention to increase the carbon tax in April, despite the fallout from the war in the Middle East. The Irish government currently takes over 57 per cent of the price of petrol and 48 per cent of the price of diesel.
As the week went on, the protesters turned the screws by blocking Ireland’s only oil refinery. This was condemned in the most serious turns. The lecterns were hauled out and Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Simon Harris, the equivalent of Ireland’s Chancellor of Exchequer, said, ‘The blocking of the distribution of fuel is a sinister and despicable attack on our economy and our society.’
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The government even threatened to call out the army on peaceful protesters, leading to damning global headlines.
Ministers complained that people were missing cancer treatments and pregnant women couldn’t make important appointments. (This from a government that up until yesterday couldn’t tell you what a woman was.)
And so when the Sunday Independent released an opinion poll confirming that a majority of the public supported the protesters, despite the clear disruption it was causing, the sense of panic in government was palpable. The cabinet met on a Sunday (unheard of) and swiftly put together a package to buy off the protesters. Even the sacrosanct carbon tax was pushed back until Autumn. It was a screeching U-turn only an electric sports car could pull off.
Yet while the government was defeated, it did not appear to have learned its lesson. On Monday, the culture minister Patrick O’Donovan said he would order Coimisiún na Meán (the Irish equivalent to Ofcom) to review the output of RTÉ, as well as other broadcasters, media organisations and social media.
O’Donovan said some voices were not being heard in the media, including protesters who were against blockades. ‘I think there is a legitimate reason now for Coimisiún na Meán to have an examination of that as well. I will be meeting them and I will be asking them to see what it is that they can do and report back.’
This is an outrageous, sinister attack by the government on the media. This is a government minister threatening to set the media regulator on the national broadcaster for not being friendly enough to the government line during the fuel protests.
RTE is the national broadcaster and received a €725 million bailout from the government in 2024. It is about as balanced as the BBC in the UK. The idea that it is was too supportive of their protestors or is anti-government is ridiculous.
And it is not just RTE that the culture minister is after – but other broadcasters, media organisations and social media firms. Clearly O’Donovan believes that tweeting in favour of the fuel protesters is an attack on democracy itself.
The minister even the brass neck to say, ‘Democracy is very fragile and I am as strong a proponent of the concept of organised protest as anybody, as a Constitutional Irish republican.’
‘Malign actors though using protests for other reasons to plant sinister seeds and to whip people up into frenzy is something all of us should be very of, particularly given the politics of the world we live in at the moment.’
Firstly, I have never seen a farmer get into a frenzy. That’s not what they do. Secondly, threatening to set the media regulator on media outlets is downright authoritarian. And it is a sign that the government knows it has control of the narrative.
There is now going to be a no confidence vote in the government. That could be very tight for the great survivor Taoiseach Micheál Martin. Yet even if he wins, the fuel protests will have been a disaster for this Irish government.
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