Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. The issue is not showing solidarity with other member states. What I think many households would like to see is the Government showing solidarity with households as well and asking businesses to do their part in reducing our demand on the electricity system. We know that we are buying in gas-powered generators and that we have a particular issue around the crunch times of 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and the early morning.The Minister of State said that the measures should be proportionate and transparent. It is not too much to ask that we would turn off LED billboards during those crunch times of pressure on the grid, especially given that we are shifting from backless advertisement billboards to these LED-type ones and the multiple and the hundreds of so-called phone kiosks that are popping up around the country. They are supposed to be telephones, but we all know that the legitimate reason for them is that they are free advertising for the phone company that had telephone boxes there previously.

That would be a proportionate measure and would show solidarity to households. These billboards are completely non-essential use of electricity. We are asking businesses to curtail their usage to reduce critical demand at those hours to help prevent blackouts for households. It would be a proportionate measure.