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

I have not received that letter. The Government will approach the issue of Tara Mines in the way that is appropriate, in particular the Ministers for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Social Protection. We will consider any issue in terms of energy prices. It is not possible for us to intervene directly to change energy price contracts that the company may have. I would like to see the company return to operation. It provides a valuable and important service to the local area, as well as nationally and internationally as one of the largest zinc mines in Europe. We need that material. We will do everything we can to help the company get back to operation and workers to get back to work. The best way of doing that is switching to renewable power where we can bring prices down.

The reason for high energy prices in the country is primarily driven by our reliance on fossil fuels. Everything we are doing in government is to switch away from those imported fuels towards the generation of our own power which will be a lower cost, cleaner and more secure.

In terms of what we are doing, we are working with the European Commission. There is a meeting of the energy Council next week. We need to reform the market and recognise that market structures are not serving their purpose as we switch to a renewable led world.

I have asked the CRU to review the hedging strategies that apply within the existing Irish market to see whether it is serving us or whether there are other ways in which that can be done so we do not have situations like this. We need to consider whether there are more optimal ways in which such hedging strategies could be deployed.

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