The Defence Forces could be used against fuel protestors to stop the country descending into “anarchy”, the Minister for Agriculture has said. 

As the fuel protest enters its third day, the Government has vowed to take a harder line against those causing disruption across Ireland. 

Yesterday, Tánaiste Simon Harris said that the blocking of fuel distribution was a “sinister and despicable attack on our economy”, adding that such behaviour “cannot be tolerated”. 

The blocking of the distribution of fuel is a sinister and despicable attack on our economy and our society. This is not a lawless country. The laws of the land must and will be applied without fear. pic.twitter.com/rYsdvXZYpg

— Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) April 8, 2026

On Newstalk Breakfast, Fine Gael’s Martin Heydon said that while he “absolutely respects” people’s right to peaceful protest, he also believes the protest cannot be allowed to continue. 

“This is a clear choice between democracy and peaceful protest or anarchy - and you can’t have anarchy,” he argued. 

“We have law and order in this country. 

“Where somebody’s protest breaks the law or blocks critical infrastructure and is going to impact every other citizen in this State… and the intervention of some of the protestors here will actually impact the ability of other businesses to keep going. 

“So, we as a Government are not going to allow good businesses to go to the wall because other people have blocked critical infrastructure and stop people going about their daily lives and their daily businesses.” 

Fuel protestors. Picture by: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie. 

The Kildare South TD added that he has constituents who have booked into Dublin hotels because they feared they would miss medical appointments the following day because of the protests. 

When questioned how Gardaí and the Defence Forces would deal with protestors who do not do as they are told, he said he would let the Minister for Justice and Garda Commissioner “deal with operational matters”. 

“The Minister for Justice has said today, the Defence Forces are the aid to the civil power,” he said. 

“There is established practice there that when the Garda needs support in its interventions, it can and will call upon the defence forces to do so.

“We are talking about very large vehicles here in certain instances. 

“So obviously, that does need a tailored response in that regard where they are blocking critical infrastructure.” 

When asked if he feared ugly confrontations between the protestors and law enforcement, Minister Heydon said that he ‘trusts the professionalism of our Gardaí and our Defence Forces’. 

Main image: Fuel protestors. Picture by: Eamonn Farrell/ RollingNews.ie