Lengthy debate in Mayo council chamber over fuel protests

Members of Mayo County Council engaged in a full-scale debate around the recent fuel protests at their monthly meeting last Monday with Louisburgh councillor Chris Maxwell demanding that public representatives "stand up for the ordinary people of Ireland".

Cathaoirleach Cllr Sean Carey opposed suspending standing orders to allow the debate but Cllr John O'Malley and Cllr Harry Barrett pushed for the debate to go ahead.

Cllr Maxwell told the forum he held in his hand a formal petition signed by 500 people and declared: "I am standing here today because I need this council to debate what has happened in this country over last few days. It is a terrible situation and no one is listening to the ordinary decent people out on the roads fighting for their livelihoods. People are gone to the pin of their collar and families and businesses may go under, which is something we warned about months ago.” 

Stating that the new package of €550 million offered by government to appease the protests was unrealistic, he appealed to his colleagues: “We must debate today about what we can do to give our people a voice. This formal submission of this petition is a rejection of the inadequate government package offered, and I propose we express our collective outrage at a government that has become so far removed from reality and propose that Mayo County Council rejects the government’s half measures here and call for a total suspension of carbon taxes rather than offering something that is just a tactical delay.” 

Cllr Maxwell further called for “a rejection of the hostile rhetoric” employed by government in terms of threats to deploy the army on people and withdraw haulier licences, adding: “I expect our local representatives to publicly distance themselves from these tactics used by Dublin-based leadership and that within the next seven days a public statement be taken out in the Mayo News, Western People and Connaught Telegraph."

Independent Ireland Cllr Maxwell then asked his colleagues: "Will you have the courage to stand with the people of Mayo or will your silence show you act with those in power in Dublin?” 

A series of councillors took to the floor in turn to support Cllr Maxwell in a debate that lasted more than an hour and a half, during which the plight of the ordinary people of Ireland in the face of a continuing cost-of-living crisis and the shocking increase in oil prices arising from the war in Iran was aired.

Independent Cllr Barrett described the recent protests as "a seminal moment in local and national politics". 

"The people of Ireland have come out and said enough is enough. This is a cost-of-living crisis. Rents have doubled in the last five years, heating oil has doubled in the last five months, food prices are up 30% in the last couple of weeks and people’s wages haven’t kept pace.

“A report in The Irish Times said we are up €700 million in exchequer income on last year, so the money is there for the working families, who are now the working poor, working hard, yet where does it get you?” 

Independent Cllr John O’Malley said: “I’ve called for the carbon tax to be abolished before and not just in relation to this crisis. It is an unjust tax, the Greens brought it in, they are not here anymore and the government could get rid of it with a stroke of the pen. 

“Rural life is being phased out in this country with the cost of fuel and especially in the West. People are producing food to the highest standard yet they have to work two jobs to do it and there is no appreciation for it. We can’t take any more. If we continue like this, farmers will be driven off the land. Something has to be done to help people in every shop and village and farm or they won’t be in it. This crisis has to be addressed so that we can get on with living our lives.” 

Independent Cllr Richard Finn said the issue essentially is taxation “and the way people are taxed into the ground in this country”, adding: “We were promised the USC would be taken off after two years, it was an emergency tax, but here we are 15 years later still paying it, and the worst part is that pensioners are paying it on their pensions they have already earned and paid tax on. It is robbery. Dick Turpin wore a mask but what is going on today is bare-faced taxation and people are not going to stand for it. To do the right thing is never the wrong thing and the government should give people a break. The hauliers and all those who made the effort deserve credit for going out on the protests.” 

Independent Cllr Patsy O'Brien said the most vulnerable are being punished with the rise in fuel prices and suggested “the simplest thing would have been to take it off at the pumps". 

He added: “Businesses are closing down. We have to listen to the people, it’s a national crisis.” 

Fianna Fáil Cllr Damien Ryan acknowledged there was “bad handling” by the government and that “it was reactive rather than proactive and lessons need to be learned". 

"However, we must acknowledge just shy of €800 million has been put in as a package to deal with what is a worldwide crisis and we don’t know where that is going to end.” 

Fine Gael Cllr Peter Flynn stated: “In all my years I have never been as worried about our society, democracy and where we are going as a country. When you have people from all over the world texting and asking are we safe to go back home, you know something is fundamentally wrong. I never experienced as much anger amongst people as last week. People are genuinely worried, but we have gone a step too far, we really have. We are living in a civic society, yet the line has been crossed on the freedom that goes with that. Our TDs and senators are being called foul names by people pulling up outside their offices. This is not where we should be as a society and I appeal to people to back off and allow our representatives to address the issues that are there.

“People who are angered by all of this, I ask them to please consider the consequences. We don’t want people not to be able to get to hospital appointments, to school, or to have healthcare workers wondering can they make calls. Certainly, voice your opinion and speak to your TDs and Senators, but the way it is going now is not working or doing any favours, we need to do the right thing and respect democracy and all work together.” 

A number of other councillors also spoke out on the sufferings of constituents over the next hour, including Cllr Brendan Mulroy, Cllr Donna Sheridan, Cllr Blackie Gavin, Cllr Michael Kilcoyne, Cllr Cyril Burke, Cllr Michael Burke, Cllr Gerry Murray, Cllr Gerry Coyle, Cllr Deirdre Lawless, Cllr Adrian Forkan and Cllr Michael Loftus before Cllr Maxwell thanked members for their support and saying: “I am very proud to be standing here today and thank all my colleagues here for listening, ye talked and ye debated. If the Irish government had listened during the week none of this would have happened.”

• Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.