Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Of course the Government expresses its sympathies. We want to ensure that a resolution is found and that employers engage with the industrial relations architecture. That is clear. As I indicated in my initial response, the industrial dispute which was reported in the media today is a dispute over redundancies at Zenith Energy. NORA is not in any way involved in the aforementioned dispute. While NORA holds stocks of petroleum on the site, NORA employees are not employed on the site. The employees of Zenith Energy are not NORA employees.

In relation to Ireland’s security of supply, Ireland is reasonably well insulated from direct supply shocks because few imports of crude oil and a comparatively small proportion of Ireland’s refined product imports come from Russia. Given that the supply of some products on the international oil markets is currently tight, particularly in the case of diesel, the oil supply position on the Irish markets is kept under review by the oil security subgroup, consisting of the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, the Department of Transport, NORA and the importing oil companies. The group meets frequently to assess the security of oil supplies into Irish terminals which are purchased on a commercial basis one month in advance. As things stand, the supply outlook in January looks positive. Given the just-in-time nature of oil supply, issues can manifest at short notice, perhaps within four or five days. As a contingency, NORA holds approximately 85 days of reserve stock and can place stock onto the domestic market to meet shortfalls. Currently, no substantial difficulties in maintaining supplies to the domestic market are forecast, including subsequent to the full implementation of the EU sanctions on Russian crude and refined product on 5 December 2022 and 5 January 2023, respectively.

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