Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

While that was a key matter for discussion, there were different consequences for three members of the European Union: us, Malta and Cyprus. At an earlier meeting of the European Energy Council there had been agreement that we would not have to apply in Ireland the same mandatory reduction. It was also recognising the reality in our case that we are connected to the UK and Norwegian gas markets and are not dependent on Russian gas in the same way. Therefore, any requirement for us to reduce our gas use by 15% would not have material consequences in terms of the use or otherwise of Russian gas. As a result, I stated that we have committed very much on a voluntary basis to do everything we can to reduce our use. We need to do that for sound economic reasons in any case, but that mandatory 15% reduction in gas does not apply to Ireland in the exact same way as it does to other member states.

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