Paul Lawless

First of all, Clare, just in relation to the protests, I stood over several days with many of the protests that were happening.

These were good, these were ordinary, these are hard-working individuals who are really fighting for their livelihoods.

They're small businesses, they're builders, they're contractors.

and the hardship that they have endured over the past number of weeks has been really immense.

Many builders have really just outlined to me that they cannot keep their trucks on the road.

Contractors who are preparing and should be preparing to cut silage, to spread fertilizer, to plant grain, etc., and really produce food over the next number of weeks,

are telling me that they simply cannot afford to do so because the cost of diesel has doubled, particularly on the green diesel side.

The government has driven these people to the brink in terms of their actions.

And this crisis was brewing for several months.

And the measures that were announced in March were simply unacceptable for so many sectors across the country.

What was announced on Sunday is welcome.

It is a first step in my view.

The truth is that if you look at green diesel, a 2.4 cents reduction is very small when the prices of green diesel has doubled.

Now there is a rebate scheme that has been announced that

We don't quite know the full detail of that scheme yet.

That is obviously very welcome.

It's something we called for over some time, that that rebate scheme and that should be extended to the agricultural sector.

I do believe it needs to be looked at.

It is calculated as a percentage.

It would make an immediate reduction.