Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach and welcome the Minister of State.

I will speak today about energy. While many people are terrified at the thought of their energy bills landing on the doormat, families must also contend with the prospect of blackouts. It is a long time since we had blackouts in this country. I remember having them when I was a child but most people will not remember them because they have an expectation of a functioning energy system as part of the social contract they enter into with the State.

I will leave to another day the issue of how we got into this mess, which has been the subject of much debate, and focus instead on what the Minister will do to make sure we have enough gas and electricity for the winter and we do not face blackouts. The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, told an Oireachtas committee two weeks ago that Ireland would voluntarily reduce its demand by approximately 15%. We have had some announcements in the past week about reducing energy use in the public sector and we also had the relaunch of the "Reduce Your Use" campaign. Some of the measures being taken in public buildings, for example, the use of thermostats to reduce temperatures, beggar belief and raise the question as to why they were not being taken in the first place.

The Government's plan seems to leave much of the heavy lifting to households. One Minister quoted in the Irish Independentnewspaper used the language of the warmonger, Donald Rumsfeld, in stating the Government would use a tactic of shock and awe in regard to households. For anyone who needs reminding, "shock and awe" is defined as a strategy based on the use of overwhelming power to force or paralyse one's enemy and destroy his or her will. If that is the approach the Government will take, it does not suggest it has citizens' best interests at heart.

If people are driven into energy poverty and further cuts in energy use, many households will go without basic necessities such as heat and light. Electricity is not a luxury for most people. Energy should be a right. As we are all aware, in many households people do not have any more lights to turn off or extra rooms they are not going to heat. They have already cut their energy use to the bone.

I will raise one example of where the Government should seek to reduce demand, namely, advertising billboards. According to the NGO, Adfree Cities, large billboards, particularly LED ones, use vast amounts of energy. Over a year of operation, the electricity used by a typical LED billboard screen equates to that of nine households. When running for a full year at maximum output, usage can be as high as that of 33 households. One example that was highlighted yesterday on social media showed an LED screen illuminating the whole of a junction in Rathmines. I subsequently submitted a complaint to the council because I think the brightness of the billboard breaches its planning conditions.

The Government should look at this. The German Government has already identified billboards as part of its demand reduction because it recognises how frivolous and unnecessary their energy usage is in advertising consumer products by massive corporations. The German Government has passed a law called the short-term energy supply security measure. It restricts illumination of billboard advertisements to six hours a day. We know we have a different situation in Ireland in that we are not as reliant on gas as Germany is, but we do have crunch times. Surely the Government should look at turning off LED-lit billboards between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. and between 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. to help reduce the pressure on our grid.

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

EU Regulation No. 2022/1369 was adopted by the Council of the European Union on 5 August of this year with the aim of improving the co-ordination framework for national gas demand reduction measures in case of a severe disruption of gas supplies from Russia. As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war, there is a heightened risk of a complete cessation of supplies of natural gas from Russia to Europe. Gas supplies from Russia to Europe have been severely reduced over the past year and continue to be a cause of concern for Europe's energy security. This has resulted in natural gas prices that are approximately ten times the levels seen just two years ago.

The continued supply of natural gas to Ireland has not to date been reduced or interrupted as a result of this reduced supply. The UK, from where we get 75% of our gas, is at a strategic advantage compared with other European countries with a diverse source of gas supplies.

This regulation requires member states to use their best efforts to reduce their gas demand by 15% over the winter. The regulation provides member states with the freedom to choose the most appropriate measures to reduce their gas demand. The measures chosen, however, should be governed by criteria such as being clearly defined, transparent, proportionate, non-discriminatory and verifiable.

The regulation highlights that it is necessary to consider the interests of protected customers and also urges member states to think about measures that affect customers other than protected customers.

The regulation outlines certain measures that member states should consider such as reducing gas consumed in the electricity sector, encouraging fuel-switching in industry, national awareness-raising campaigns and targeted obligations to reduce heating and cooling in order to promote switching to other fuels and to reduce consumption by industry.

The regulation requires that the competent authority of each member state - in our case the Commission for Regulation of Utilities - takes the necessary steps to update its national emergency plan to reflect voluntary demand reduction measures by 31 October of this year.

My Department wrote to the Commission for Regulation of Utilities and Gas Networks Ireland to request that they develop proposals for gas demand reduction measures in response to the requirements set out in the regulation on co-ordinated demand reduction measures for gas. The Department has received these options and is working with the CRU and GNI to prepare proposals for the energy security emergency group to consider. It will be important that the measures will be able to have an impact on demand reduction for this winter and that they do not negatively impact protected customers. We must also be mindful that the majority of Ireland's natural gas is used in the power generation sector.

The Government has already taken actions that will reduce our gas use. Last week the Government approved a suite of energy efficiency measures across the public sector. We have also implemented national awareness-raising campaigns to encourage people to reduce their energy use.

Ireland has a derogation from having to comply with mandatory demand reductions because it is no longer directly connected to another EU member state. However, by having a voluntary demand reduction plan, Ireland is showing solidarity with other member states.

Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | 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.

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Government has to lead by example on this and the public sector has been asked to turn down its thermostats to a maximum of 19°C and to turn off the power an hour or two before the end of the working day where that is feasible, reasonable and safe, which it would not be in a hospital, obviously. We have also asked that public sector buildings and bodies turn off display lighting at night, where it is not there for the purpose of safety. That should, of course, extend to the corporate sector. Just as the Government has a role to lead by example, the corporate sector has to do its share of the work and it can never be the case that we ask the public to do something that the Government would not do or the corporate sector would not be asked to do.

I agree that display advertising should be constrained and reduced. I will talk to the CRU about that. The regulator has come out with a set of proposed tariffs for the corporate sector that increase the cost for corporations. They are especially targeted at large energy users. There has been a public consultation on this, which is now closed. I am waiting to see what comes back from the CRU on this, but it will charge large energy users, such as data centres, more to use electricity during peak hours. It will also charge them more where there is any threat to the supply. It will increase the tariff when the wind drops and we are more dependent on gas than we usually are than on renewable energy. Large energy users are not happy about that. The corporate sector has to come to me in its pre-budget submissions. It is not happy about that, but it has to happen. There has to be solidarity between Government, the corporate sector and the public.