John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like a debate on public lighting in this country, and what our local authorities are doing to try to increase our energy efficiency with public lighting. We have 31 local authorities with 480,000 public lights across the country. Local authorities have already embarked on a process of changing them to LED lighting to make them more carbon efficient and environmentally-friendly. That is a really important aspect and level of work. The issue I want to raise is that of rural one-off public lighting. I raise it in the circumstances where in my own county of Louth, a total moratorium has been placed on the erection of public lighting because the local authority does not want to take on the cost of it. Not a single public light has been erected in Louth County Council, other than by developers, since 2009. It is a moratorium that has been sanctioned by a local authority.My issue is that it differs from local authority to local authority. Other local authorities are able to do it but in County Louth they are not. We are embarking on a massive switch-over with our LED lighting to make it more energy efficient and that is excellent. However, it is not an excuse for local authorities to say they do not have the money to run the lighting or that they are not going to look at introducing any sort of lighting whatsoever. I am referring to lighting in rural areas where there are serious safety concerns, hazards, issues on the road and a whole range of things. It is not acceptable for a local authority to refuse, for 12 and a half years, to introduce any sort of public lighting, while at the same time we are making great strides to change thousands of public lights in urban areas to make them more energy efficient. It is an example of a level of discrimination between urban and rural areas. I would like a good debate about public lighting and what we are doing to make it more energy efficient and to ensure it is available in rural areas in the same way as it is in urban centres.