The Coalition is drawing up a new energy plan which could see the temperatures in offices and buildings lowered this winter, while workers may be asked not to spread out across different floors.
The three party leaders and a number of Ministers will meet on Tuesday to discuss the details of a memo which is due to go to Cabinet on Wednesday suggesting new energy savings measures for the public sector. The measures proposed in the memo were likely to be similar to measures announced in France and Germany, sources said.
In Germany this winter, public buildings other than hospitals are to be heated to a maximum of 19C and the heating may be turned off completely in entrances, corridors and foyers.
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In France, president Emmanuel Macron said he wanted a 10 per cent reduction in France’s energy use in the coming weeks and months as he instructed businesses and people to turn down the air con and heating.
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Irish Government sources said the new energy conservation plan would also look at how best to use the space in buildings, which could involve asking businesses not to have staff spread across different floors with the heating on in each floor. Instead, and if it is considered safe in light of Covid-19, businesses could be asked to put workers on the same floor and turn off the heating on the other floors, for example.
Speaking on Monday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said “we do need now, all of us, to focus in on reducing energy”. He said the Government would separately consider the issue of a windfall tax on energy profits, describing it as “complex”.
It comes as Russia indefinitely suspended the Nord Stream gas pipeline to Europe, causing European gas prices to surge again. The Kremlin said Russia’s gas supplies to Europe would not resume in full until the “collective West” lifts sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
Mr Martin described the developments as “worrying” and said it was “part of the war”.
“When Putin launched this war on Ukraine, he clearly was intent, and even in advance of the war, beginning to weaponise energy, migration and weaponise food. It is a very serious situation that Europe now finds itself in. We will call on him to end the war.”
Meanwhile, a new draft of proposals being considered by the European Union includes “skimming the revenues” of energy companies to tackle surging bills that threaten to cripple households and businesses across the bloc, The Irish Times can reveal.
The draft proposals were drawn up by the Czech presidency of the EU in a document dated Monday and seen by The Irish Times, and are being considered by the Irish Government and the other 27 member states before they meet at an emergency energy council on Friday.
Another option listed on the paper is to intervene to decouple or limit the impact of the price of gas on the price of electricity, changing the current situation in which gas sets prices for the market under the EU marginal pricing system.
The paper warns that the large price swings in markets are causing a negative feedback loop of ever-greater volatility.
The paper suggests the 27 may divide interventions into two phases: immediate emergency action with measures that can be quickly agreed upon by the 27; and a second phase of a more “systemic upgrade” of the design of the energy market to prevent recurrences in the future, which will require more discussion.
The proposals are being considered in Dublin and other national capitals, before commission officials are set to incorporate the views of member states into an adjusted proposal that will form the basis of discussions when energy ministers meet on Friday.
