Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Senator did not specify the exact place which he said was like Route 66, but I very much take the point on board. Local authorities have responsibility in this regard. Transport Infrastructure Ireland, formerly the NRA, also has a responsibility in that regard. There are issues related to safety on the roads, with which it must deal. However, the overall push must be and is towards achieving energy efficiency, of which lighting forms a very big part. Other countries are also adopting dimming and trimming approaches, including the use of LED lighting and so on. There is a great deal that we could do in that regard. I agree with the Senator whom I thank for his comments.

Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice made a number of points and the one that stands out for me concerns the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth. He asked if we had more people in employment and more people driving on the roads and if that inevitably meant an increase in energy consumption. One issue all policy makers, both here and internationally, are trying to address is how can we decouple an increase in energy consumption from economic growth. Nobody wants to stem or stop economic growth, but we have to sunder the link that with economic growth which has meant greater consumption of energy. We have to try to change the graph and ensure economic growth does not necessarily mean an increase in energy consumption. That is why we are very focused on addressing this issue of efficiency and reducing and curtailing the consumption of energy in various processes, whether it be manufacturing or others.

Yesterday I was at the Abbott plant in Sligo. It and many other companies have energy-efficiency programmes within their operations. Abbott is obviously involved in a particular field of diagnostics and so on. Many other companies are doing this. It is not always a great idea to mention one company, but it is not alone in this. Many similar companies, large and small, are looking at this to try to decouple these two things. We want employment growth, but we want to reduce energy consumption. If there are more cars on the road in two or three years time, there might be more electric vehicles on the road.