Fuel panic: Longford service station sells out three days’ worth of fuel in 24 hours

With news of service stations in Galway and Roscommon running out of fuel yesterday, panic began to spread as motorists rushed to the pumps to top up.

Such was the intense demand that Hanlon's Gala Service Station on the Dublin Road in Longford town sold out of 3 days worth of fuel in less than 24 hours yesterday, Thursday April 9.

To keep the forecourt a fair playing field for all customers, owner Paddy Hanlon told the Longford Leader of their decision to implement a €40 fuel limit per customer. While another delivery is scheduled for Hanlon's Gala tomorrow, its arrival is not fully guaranteed.    

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Said Paddy, "The pressure set in yesterday when people realised the garages were running out of fuel. We sold about three days worth of fuel yesterday and we have enough today until about five o'clock before we run out. So that's kind of where we're at, presently."

"We put a €40 limit for customers on the pumps, just to be fair to everybody. So look, we'll see how it goes, but we're not scheduled to get a delivery until tomorrow, so more than likely we'll run out today."

Owner of Hanlon's Gala, Paddy Hanlon

Paddy added, "Once people realised that the fuel wasn't getting out of the ports, they started to panic. People who'd normally buy €20 or €30, it turned into an €80 or €100 purchase, so it put pressure on the fuel supply that we had."

"If we don't get a delivery tomorrow morning, I suppose we'll be out for the weekend and with the kids going back to school on Monday, it's going to put an awful lot of pressure on the system, but I think the government will have to come to some agreement with the protestors in order to get it moving again."

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