The reality is that this Government is not into listening, and there is no confidence out there. It should be very worrying for the Government if any of them were on the protests. We had supporters of Independents and some people who probably never voted before, but also a huge number of people who would have supported the Government partners over generations. You could feel the anger of people who felt they had been absolutely let down. The only way to say it is that the Government, in particular the Taoiseach, managed to put fuel on the fire and stoke the whole thing up in the middle of last week. It showed an element of ineptitude in not realising just how angry people were. These are people who did not want to be out on protests. Let us look at the reality. It is about the cost of fuel. We all accept that this was started by Donald Trump and genocidal Israel, but it is about what the Government did not listen to and did not do. It is about not realising that there are 700,000 households across this State that use kerosene, yet there is nothing in the package for them. We all know the issues for agricultural contractors, farmers and hauliers. They would say that they have had issues for years, and this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Bus and coach operators would say that there are supports for some but not for others. None of this is good enough. There has been an absolute failure to do at the pumps what needs to be done. It is about green diesel, petrol and diesel. None of it was sufficient. We could have seen a 25 cent reduction in diesel and petrol, but the Government was not interested and did not listen. It is absolutely out of time in relation to where the people are at the present.

Sentiment score: -0.09