Farmers in tractors bring Belfast Airport to a standstill in fuel protest
Fuel protesters have brought disruption to a number of major roads in Northern Ireland.
Slow-moving convoys of tractors and other vehicles formed in Belfast and several other areas as part of protests against rising energy bills.
While the protests led to significant traffic jams in some areas, the disruption was not on the scale of recent fuel protests in the Republic of Ireland, where motorways were brought to standstills and fuel depots blockaded.
A slow-moving convoy of around 35 tractors, lorries and trucks with flashing lights travelled along both lanes on the A1 towards Belfast on Tuesday evening. Disruption was also reported near Ballygawley in Co Tyrone.
By midday traffic clogged up the Sydenham bypass near Belfast City Airport, hours after passengers were warned there may be disruption.
It then travelled down the bypass in the direction of Bangor towards Belfast City Airport, with some cars undercutting them on the cycle route to get past on the inside.
Health minister Mike Nesbitt pleaded with protesters not to block roads, warning that the lives of those seeking medical treatment could be put at risk.
Ballygowan farmer Sam Hanna was joined by his border collie Roy in the cab of one of the lead tractors in the protest on the Sydenham bypass in Belfast, and he said the protest ‘isn’t about farmers’.
‘This is extortionate what we’re getting charged in taxes throughout life – not just fuel, petrol, everything, we’re being extorted,’ he said.
‘Technically, it’s not us that’s blocking the hard shoulder. We have kept the hard shoulder open.
‘The cars are underpassing the whole way, the police are sitting watching them underpass.
‘It’s the cars that are blocking the hard shoulder.
‘There was a couple of emergency vehicles went down, there’s a few there coming, and we pulled over straight away.’
He described the rising price of fuel as the ‘final nail in the coffin’.
‘The south have got 505 million out of it, to the farmers and all,’ he said.
‘It’s probably a few pounds per litre but it’s still money getting back, and it’s only figures on a page for them boys, they’re not living in the real world like us and trying to scrimp and scrape.
‘Nobody has savings nowadays. Any money you get it’s to keep you going and keep things ticking over and just joining the dots.’
The Irish government announced a 505 million euro package of support on Sunday to respond to rising fuel prices caused by the war in Iran, but the political fallout from the protests continues as the Dail returned from the Easter break on Tuesday.
The Irish parliament is debating a confidence motion in the coalition Government, triggered by the main opposition party Sinn Fein, after a week of widespread disruption caused by protests and blockades of fuel supplies.
Mr Hanna said: ‘The UK Government have to act and realistically what we’re doing here, they don’t care what we’re doing.
‘They don’t give a damn about us here and that will show in their response to this.’
First Minister Michelle O’Neill and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly last week wrote to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer urging him to bring forward a package of support measures for people in the region.
They asked Westminster to look at reducing fuel duty, targeted support for hauliers, farmers and small and medium enterprises, and a comprehensive cost-of-living support package.
Mr Nesbitt said he would be concerned if roads were blocked and urged people to engage in ‘legitimate legal protest’.
‘Today, as is the case every day, there will be well over 100,000 engagements or interactions between the HSC and the public,’ he said.
‘Thousands and thousands of them depend on the workforce getting from A to B, or for patients or service users getting from B to A in a timely manner.
‘Ultimately, the logic to that is disruption threatens life.
‘My plea is let the health and social care system work as it is supposed to work.’
Ulster Unionist leader Jon Burrows said there should be an emergency meeting of the Stormont powersharing Executive to discuss rising fuel prices.
He said: ‘When people block roads for whatever purpose, it has a lot of unintended consequences.
‘Right now, there will be emergency services who will struggle to get to calls, there will be key workers who will not be able to get to work.’
Mr Burrows added: ‘I understand the concern about the cost of fuel, about the cost of living crisis, but we need to have calm leadership and cool heads.
‘I would ask the people involved in blocking roads to stop.
‘This Executive needs to stand up and deliver in terms of convening an emergency meeting to decide what we are going to do about the cost-of-living crisis.’
The Belfast disruption comes after similar demonstrations south of the border disrupted fuel supplies, port operations and traffic in city centres and on motorways for a week.
Although blockades at Ireland’s only oil refinery and elsewhere were cleared at the weekend, smaller protests continued on motorways around Dublin on Monday – and a protest is due to be held at Leinster House on Tuesday, to coincide with a confidence vote in the government.
Social media posts have called for similar fuel protests at several locations in Northern Ireland on Tuesday.
The cost of petrol, diesel and marked gas oil (‘green diesel’) has soared since the war in Iran.
The US and Israel began bombing Iran on February 28, after which the Iranians began an effective blockade of vital trading route the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting energy and fuel supplies.
A PSNI spokesperson said: ‘Police are advising of delays leaving Belfast country-bound on the Sydenham bypass due to slow moving traffic.
‘Road users are advised to avoid if possible and to leave extra time for their journey.’
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