Dublin truck protest Routes around East Link Bridge and Port are blocked
about 3 years in The Irish Times
Dublin City Council urged motorists to avoid the Dublin Port area on Monday morning as truckers and hauliers began a protest expected to bring the capital city to a “standstill”.
Protesters against rising fuel costs started to gather at locations on the M1, M4, M7 and close to the M11/M50 junction at 3am on Monday before moving towards Dublin.
Main traffic updates
East Link Toll Bridge blocked
Dublin Tunnel, southbound, blocked
East Wall Road roundabout blocked
Sean Moore Road roundabout blocked
The council’s traffic management centre said early on Monday trucks were blocking the roundabouts on East Wall Road and Sean Moore Road at Dublin Port.
Access to the Tom Clarke Bridge providing access to the East Link bridge was also blocked by trucks in both directions.
Dublin Tunnel, southbound, was also closed due to traffic congestion.
Pedestrians were also expected to gather at 9am on Monday for a march from the GPO on O’Connell Street to the 3Arena.
The protester group, which named itself The People of Ireland Against Fuel Prices, has said it will not leave without a resolution on the issue, and called on participants to be prepared to protest “for at least one week, maybe even two”.
The demonstrators were previously known as The Irish Trucker and Haulage Association against Fuel Prices.
Before Christmas this group held two similar protests, the first of which had significant traffic repercussions, while the second was much smaller than anticipated.
The People of Ireland Against Fuel Prices group is not affiliated with the official Irish Road Haulage Association.
The protesters’ demands include price caps on fuel, the scrapping of the carbon tax and the resignation of Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire
Demands
In a post on Facebook, where they organise the protests, the new group said it will not be a one-day demonstration and will be a “long, drawn-out process until our demands our [sic] met”.
“We are a group of truck companies struggling to stay afloat and have come together, along with farmers, bus companies, taxis and the general public to protest as the price of being in business and the cost of living is not affordable. We are all in crisis,” the post said.
The group condemned the Government’s plan to increase tax on fuel, referring to the carbon tax increase that is due to come into effect on May 1st.
The group’s demands include price caps on petrol, diesel and home heating fuel, the scrapping of the carbon tax and the resignation of Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan.
The price caps the group are seeking are €1.10 per litre for petrol, €1.20 per litre for diesel, 65c per litre for green diesel and 65c per litre for home heating oil.
The most recent price survey from AA Ireland found the average price per litre of diesel was €1.90, while petrol was €1.82.
Chief executive of Dublin Town business group, Richard Guiney, said on Monday protests and disruption were not what Dublin needed at a time when businesses were still “coming out of the pandemic”.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Mr Guiney called for dialogue with the protesting truck drivers, saying businesses and their staff were also experiencing inflation.
He said the issue was “something we need to work on together rather than one sector impacting on another, especially when that sector is still so fragile”.
A spokesman for the gardaí said: “An Garda Síochána will have an appropriate and proportionate plan in place to monitor the protest.”