While the impact of the spike in energy prices has been impossible to miss, the reality is the crisis could be on the cusp of getting a lot worse.
The price of electricity and gas has gone through the roof over the past 12 months with many households worse over by well over €500 a year as a result of savage hikes in utility bills.
But at least there has been no impact on the supply of energy to Irish homes.
Not yet.
Even six months ago talk of energy rationing would have been outlandish, but it is now being discussed in a serious way in the corridors of power across Europe, with Irish EU Commissioner Mairead McGuinness just one of the senior politicians raising the spectre of supply shortages for the coming winter in recent days.
The war in Ukraine and Russia’s stranglehold on much of Europe’s energy supply – particularly its gas – has revealed a weakness in the infrastructural systems across the EU, but just how weak those systems are remains to be seen.
The question now is what would energy rationing look like and is Ireland ready for it from a societal, political or an economic perspective?
The Irish Times political reporter Jack Horgan-Jones has been asking that question and others about what the future might hold and he shares some of the answers with the In The News podcast.
