Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is fair to say that the Government has not been found wanting when it comes to helping businesses to get through difficult periods and indeed saving jobs. The multibillion euro financial assistance provided by the Government during the pandemic was unprecedented whether it was to help businesses with their wage bills so that they could keep staff on, or their overheads, or with the introduction of a cheaper easier way to restructure and survive that examinership. The commercial rates waiver and the reduction in VAT for the hospitality and retail sectors are other examples. I am conscious of how worried businesses are as they go into the winter and the real concern about energy costs. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is having significant consequences for the whole of Europe and not just Ireland. We are working on new proposals to help businesses with rapidly rising energy prices and I expect to be in a position to make announcements about these in and around budget time.

We will also be looking to raise awareness around energy efficiency, helping businesses to reduce the amount of energy they use in the first place and improving take-up of approximately 20 different schemes we have already have in place for business. For example, in June we announced a new €55 million green transition fund to help businesses move away from fossil fuels and towards more sustainable cheaper alternatives. To date, about 120,000 people are directly employed in gas-intensive manufacturing sectors. That is where 40% of final energy consumption is in the form of gas. Gas-intensive manufacturing sectors include the basic metals and fabricated products subsector, chemicals and man-made fibres subsector, which includes the pharmaceutical plants, food and beverage subsectors as well. This represents 41% of the total final gas consumption nationally in 2020 and the majority of industry use.

While it is useful to consider the numbers employed and the energy intensity of the economic sectors to gain a broad understanding of sectoral exposure to energy, it would be incorrect to imply that all jobs in energy-intense sectors are at risk. It is also difficult to forecast the impact that higher energy costs might have on the staffing of energy-intense firms as any potential job losses would depend on decisions taken at individual firm level and therefore it is very difficult to predict given the unique nature of each firm’s cost base.

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