Minister urges drivers to slow down and cut fuel consumption

People should drive more slowly as a practical step to reduce their fuel consumption amid rampant cost inflation, Minister for Climate Eamon Ryan has said.

Mr Ryan told a press conference in Dublin on Wednesday that the risk of fuel rationing was “low”, although he said anything could happen in the “very mad world” that now prevails.

He said the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) will be coming out with advice on how people can reduce their consumption of energy, similar to public information campaigns that came out during the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said there would be clear simple messages and that the SEAI would give more detailed advice. But he added: “Everyone knows that the speed of cars affects efficiency and if you go above a certain speed the cost increases dramatically.”

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Minister for Public Expenditure Michael McGrath said there are risks, meanwhile, to the cost of food while the potential also exists for materials shortages which could contribute to the cost of construction going up.

“Certainly [there] are significant risks on the cost of living and the costs of materials side and we’ll keep that under close review. But Government doesn’t have any intentions of other further initiatives beyond what’s being announced today.”

High costs

Asked whether the Coalition would consider seeking revenues from windfall profits which may occur in the energy sector, due to the high costs being levied on consumers, Mr Ryan suggested that the conditions to allow for this didn’t exist in Ireland.

He said in other countries, where nuclear energy, for example, is prominent, utility companies are not experiencing significant increases in fuel costs. However, that is not the case in Ireland, he added, while Irish semi-States are also focused on investing revenues rather than diverting them to the exchequer in the form of a dividend.

Asked about the impact on data centres, Mr Ryan said they would be asked to play their part in making the grid more resilient, including locating in areas that don’t place undue demand on the system – and installing their own back-up capacity to contribute when needed.

He said work is being done in his department on energy security. But he did not address whether opposition to the Shannon Liquified Natural Gas terminal is being revisited in the context of this crisis.