PROTESTS in Ireland calling for further government help to lower fuel costs continued to disrupt traffic on busy roads and motorways today, with parked lorries and tractors.

Irish police said that O’Connell Street and O’Connell Bridge in Dublin were at a standstill.

The protest began on Tuesday morning over the high fuel prices caused by the US-Israel war on Iran.

Eamon Curley, a beef farmer and Beef Plan Movement chairman, warned that food prices will “jump up” if the government fails to act.

“The farmers drive tractors, the builders drive diggers,” he said.

“Green diesel is our blood and what they’re doing at the moment with these high taxes, they’re kneeling on our throats.”

John Dallon, a farmer from County Kildare, said the government should take the protests “seriously,” adding: “We’re calling on the government here to save our economy.

“Do they realise how many businesses in Ireland are in dire straits?

“We are looking for the diesel to be capped.”

Irish Deputy Prime Minister, or Tanaiste, Simon Harris was expected to hold a meeting today on the issue of energy.