Ben Scallan

So as you have no doubt heard, cause it did make international press.

The last couple of weeks have been very eventful here in the Emerald Isle.

We've seen massive blockades of major roads all over the country with truckers and farmers in particular.

who are protesting over the price of petrol.

Many of these are business owners who are literally now operating at a loss where they can't even pay the bills, let alone make a profit or have any kind of a thriving business.

And in a country like Ireland that is so known for its agricultural sector, this is one of our major... When you think of Ireland, you think of...

farming, you know, some of our agricultural products are the best in the world.

And so this is a huge deal.

And one of the elements of this, of course, is the Iran war.

Needless to say, that's been the primary driver of fuel prices worldwide.

But for many years now in Ireland,

Over 50% of motor fuel prices are purely comprised of government taxes and levies.

So when you fill up your car, over half of what you're paying is going straight into the state's coffers.

And so that's been the case for a long time.

People haven't been happy about it for a long time, but they've kind of just accepted it.

It's been a grumbling issue in the background that people have begrudgingly tolerated.

But then when the price of energy worldwide explodes and people are not able to make ends meet, this has now become kind of the focal point where people are saying, well, why are we paying so much taxes?

And what are you going to do about it, given that this is something that you can immediately do to pull the ripcord and help every citizen in the state?

Well, they did a small tax cut that many people who are in these industries are saying is woefully inadequate and has just been eaten up by inflation almost as quickly as it was put on.

And they, for example, just to give one practical example of a measure they took,