Recent measures aimed at reducing fuel prices have not gone far enough, according to some students who say they will continue to be impacted by rising costs.
Reacting to the measures implemented by the government which include a 10 cent reduction on petrol and diesel, UL student Aisling Coffey admitted she doesn’t think this reduction makes “much of a difference.”
“If they are bringing in the carbon tax…it’ll be coming back to the same price,” she said.
UL student Julina Ryan believes the Government have not taken enough action and are “avoiding the problem.”
“I know in Australia they made public transport free for a while and cut taxes for three months, it’s like in Ireland nothing has really changed that much and I don’t think they are taking enough action, and they [government] didn’t act that quickly either.”
The new supports come following a week of blockades and protests which brought the country’s motorways to a standstill.
UL Students were among those affected by the protests. From being late for lectures because of the traffic, to struggling to go home for the weekend.
Lillian spoke to UL students about the recent fuel protests
Commuter student Rose O’Callaghan from Caherconlish was forced to take back roads to get to college.
She described the situation as “very stressful” especially “having to get up an hour earlier” to make it to her lectures on time.
Ellie Scilly who commutes to University of Limerick by bus shares; “I had to get my dad to drop me into college at 6:45 for my midterm.”
Lylah O’Callaghan travels by bus to University of Limerick from Mayo “It took us four hours to get home”, she said. “Most of the junctions were cut off to the motorway.”
Continuing, only one junction was open, “so once we got onto that motorway, there was still a lot of backlash.”
A 10-cent tax decrease on petrol and diesel has been introduced as part of the €505 million package of supports which came into effect at midnight.
These measures are set to remain in place until July 31.
Pressure continued to rise as Junior Minister, Michael Healy-Rae, stepped down from his position amid the confidence vote in the Dail yesterday.
Despite the Government winning the confidence vote with a result of 92 to 78, Healy-Rae said he believed “This Government has let the people of Ireland down.”