THE Communist Party of Ireland (CPI) backed fuel protests that have blocked roads across the country today, saying they “reflect a growing recognition that the burden of this crisis is being placed on working people.”

Slow-moving convoys of hundreds of lorries and tractors have snarled up roads for days, protesting at soaring fuel prices due to the US-Israeli war on Iran and demanding fuel duty cuts.

“The high prices faced by households are not incidental. They are the direct outcome of a dependent economic model and a political establishment subordinated to the strategic interests and permanent wars of US and EU imperialism,” the CPI said.

“Our people are already reeling under some of the highest energy costs in Europe, resulting from the NATO proxy war against Russia. This has been compounded by the government’s decision to slavishly follow the EU’s failed Ukraine strategy, which has driven up energy prices and deepened our dependency on expensive fuel imports from the United States.

“Over decades, they have handed over our oil and gas resources, from Kinsale in the Celtic Sea to the Corrib gas field, to global energy corporations, abandoning any serious prospect of energy sovereignty and failing to protect our people.

“In return for these acts of betrayal by our ruling class, our people are forced to pay global energy prices.”

Irish Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon and Minister of State Timmy Dooley were due to meet protest leaders today, though on Thursday the government suggested it might ask the military to clear roads.