Paul Lawless

The governments have done their level best to blacken the protesters and the ordinary hard-working men and women.

I am not going to do that, Clare.

I met with those protesters.

These are ordinary men and women who felt that they had no choice but to

raise their voices.

And let's remember, in March, this government reduced green diesel, for example, by 5 cents a litre.

You might feel really strongly about something.

Well, the repercussions of what has happened, Clare, has been the government package that was announced.

Because last week on Wednesday, I listened to a Fine Gael minister on the media in Mayo who outlined that it was his intention and the government's intention to continue with what he said was the modest and necessary increase of the carbon tax.

That was what was on the agenda last week.

And it was as a result of people power that really brought the government really listening to the people in relation to this.

Nobody wants to see roads blocked.

Clare, what the government needs to realise here is that it was the government's refusal, it was the government's stubbornness in relation to this that actually led to such a swell of demonstration and indeed public support as well.

We have not seen this level of protest since

the water crisis, really.

We haven't seen pumps run dry since the 1980s.

And I spoke with several protesters who outlined from the outset that they wanted to see their government listen to them, number one.

They wanted to speak with their government and they wanted the government to realise and wake up to the plight of small businesses that are reliant on diesel.

And that was not the case previous and indeed during the protests that were happening.