Terry Brennan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Regarding the suggestion made by Senator Feargal Quinn on the introduction of low-energy lamps, I am pleased to report that my own county of Louth introduced the use of lamps with low carbon emissions some 12 or 13 years ago. As I travelled to Dublin from Carlingford yesterday morning, via Dundalk and Drogheda, I passed thousands of traffic route lighting installations along the motorway, all of which seemed to be on for one hour longer than necessary. If one can travel with side lights at that time of the morning, there is surely no need for the lighting to be on. Will the Leader arrange a debate on energy costs for local authorities and how savings might be made and carbon emissions reduced? There is certainly scope to reduce the megawatts of lighting on roads at least for certain periods of the night. Senator Feargal Quinn mentioned a nine year payback period in terms of savings. Without knowing the exact projections in this regard, I undertook an exercise to see what savings might be achieved.

My own local authority, Louth County Council, would save €500,000 on its lighting bill alone, and there would be a significant saving for all local authorities throughout the country. I call for an urgent debate to review the cost of the lighting system and assess whether we are being charged too much at off-peak hours. Importantly, this would also mean we would be playing our part in reducing carbon emissions throughout the country.