It is absolutely astounding that the Government refused to meet the protestors yet was so quick to blacken their names. In fact, every single intervention this Government made over the past number of days has added fuel to the fire. It threatened the use of the Army and the public order unit, it threatened to revoke licences and it even accused a Minister of being far right. That is not leadership; that is provocation and it is deeply wrong. The Minister for justice even called in the Army without engaging with his Fine Gael colleague and now the Government is threatening an investigation in the media for daring to even cover this protest. Let me be very clear, this is the policy of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the ghost of the Green Party to drive up fuel. It is incremental increase after increase to the carbon tax. Last week, the Minister of State, Deputy Alan Dillon, just a few days ago when businesses were on their knees-----

Sentiment score: -0.02

-----outlined to the Mayo media that he was going to increase carbon tax again on 1 May. "A modest increase", is what he said, when the people were struggling. He should be listening to the people, he should be engaging with the people and he should not be blackening their name.

Sentiment score: 0.08