An independent TD has said she will back a motion of no confidence in the government this week following a week of protests and blockades over increases in fuel prices.

Offaly TD Carol Nolan confirmed she will vote in favour of the Sinn Féin motion following what she called "an unprecedented and tumultuous week of nationwide fuel protests".

Sinn Féin is set to bring forward the motion this week, with the party's spokesperson on finance, Pearse Doherty, claiming: "This government clearly aren’t listening to the people.

The Donegal TD said yesterday evening (Sunday, April 12): "[The government] hasn't taken the necessary action to make fuel affordable at the pumps. What [it] announced this evening fell far short. Working people left behind again.

"People have no confidence in this government. They have failed to take responsibility for a crisis that they allowed to spiral out of control," Doherty claimed.

"[The government] only moved because of public pressure - and even then, they fell short. The pressure must now intensify. We will bring forward our motion of no confidence in the government this week. They have to go," Doherty added.

Outlining her reasons for backing the Sinn Féin motion, Nolan said she has "never witnessed such a spontaneous outburst of public anger, frustration and profound sadness from ordinary people and workers trying to keep their homes and livelihoods".

She added: "Something has finally snapped among the ordinary people of Ireland; the people that get up early, work every hour God gives them and get next to nothing in return except ever tightening margins and a taxation regime that treats them like cash-cows rather than people just trying to earn a decent living."

She claimed that this government, and previous governments, have "become so overly focussed on the international scene that they have lost sight of the real pain that our own people are in at the national level".

She added: "People are simply sick and tired of being taken for fools. They are sick of being lectured at by an elite clique."

Nolan also claimed "what happened last week has changed everything".

"The centre of power is being returned to the people and away from those who see their right to govern as some kind of divine right," she added.