The fuel crisis did not come from nowhere. Ireland is a price taker: we had no hand in starting the war on Iran, yet Irish workers are paying the price for it at the pump every day. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the broader imperialist campaign waged by the United States and its allies against Iranian sovereignty have sent global oil prices soaring.

This is the cost of wars that Ireland is not directly party to but whose consequences we cannot escape, as successive governments have left us without energy sovereignty. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have built an economy that requires the permission of Washington and the compliance of Brussels in order to function. That dependence is not an accident — it is a political choice, made consistently over decades, and working people are now paying for it when they go to fill up their car or heat their home.

The government has offered spin, sympathy, and a €250 million package that amounts to a fraction of the increased tax take it took in as prices rose. What ever happened to the rainy day fund that the government told us about? Is it still not enough of a rainy day to use these funds to seriously tackle a crisis? How bad must things get?

Carbon taxes and energy levies, as currently structured, are regressive and anti-worker. They fall hardest on those least able to pay — workers who cannot cycle to work, families who were pushed to the edges of commuter towns by the housing crisis; people with no choice but to take the car.

The answer to energy dependency is the public ownership of renewable infrastructure. Ireland must break its dependence on the fossil fuel markets that imperialist wars repeatedly destabilise. That requires investment in public transport, a genuine right to remote working enshrined in law, and a serious conversation about all low-carbon generation options, such as nuclear power. It does not require working people to be bled dry while the government does nothing.

The broad labelling of the fuel protesters as far-right by some is a lame cop out. Although opportunist and reactionary elements have attempted to attach themselves to these protests — and those characters should be seen for what they are — concern over the cost of fuel is obviously not a position exclusive to the far-right. Additionally, the deployment of the military against citizens exercising the right to protest sets a dangerous precedent. The right to protest is not contingent on government approval; it is an inalienable right of the Irish citizen.

The government must remove the regressive burden of carbon and excise levies from working people, and begin the work of building a publicly-owned and genuinely sovereign energy system.