LAST UPDATE | 13 Apr
ALL MAJOR ROADS – bar one – are not congested this evening, following a number of disruptions earlier this morning.
It follows six days of protests on Irish roads and blockades of fuel terminals and the country’s only oil refinery at Whitegate in Co Cork.
Protests and blockades were largely cleared by yesterday afternoon, although protests on motorways across Ireland persisted into the late evening and into this morning.
The government announced its €505m fuel support package yesterday evening.
It followed the conclusion of an emergency Cabinet meeting that sought to sign off on measures to appease protesters and put an end to the nearly week-long disruption.
Today, a national strike has been touted online but it remains unclear whether this will materialise into any concrete action by protesters.
For now, the only motorway experiencing congestion is the M7 westbound, where a vehicle on fire temporarily blocked the road at junction 12 (Newbridge) at 5pm.
The road has since reopened, but there’s severe delays of 60 minutes.
Over the weekend, extensive efforts were made by gardaí to disperse protesters and their vehicles at fuel terminals at Foynes in Co Limerick and Galway harbour, which had been blockaded since early last week.
The blockades caused fuel to run dry in some 900 forecourts across the country at the peak yesterday morning, but access has since been regained to these key fuel terminals and it is expected supply will return to normal levels nationally within the next five to ten days.
Derogations on driving hours for drivers transporting fuel and home heating oil was signed off by Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien on Saturday to attempt to ramp up supply of fuel after blockades obstructed the usual deliveries.
Transport
While gardaí cleared fuel protesters from a number of roads across the country over the weekend, including Dublin’s M50 motorway, a number of protests and road closures were in place this morning.
Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) says that as of this afternoon, none of these blockades remain in place on Ireland’s motorways.
The M9 between Junction 3 Athy and Junction 2 Kilcullen direction northbound had been closed this morning, but TII has said that it fully reopened as the morning went on. Similarly, the M3/N3 between Junction 11 Kells to Junction 9 Navan in both directions has fully reopened following an earlier blockade.
There are reports of congestion leading to delays on the M50 Southbound from J10 – J13, with further delays on routes around Dublin.
Dublin Bus has said that full services resumed at 4am this morning after a week of disruptions.
A spokesperson for the company advised this morning that passengers check its website and social media channels.
“We would like to thank all customers for their patience and understanding during this period of disruption,” the spokesperson said.
All Red and Green Luas lines are also operating normally today.
With reporting by Eoghan Dalton and Andrew Walsh