*Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment, Darragh O’Brien at The Banner Plaza. Photograph: Natasha Barton
A PUBLIC information campaign formed part of the big plan from the Government to help the people of Ireland amid the fuel crisis, prior to the outbreak of the six day protests across the country.
As the country deals with a fuel crisis not seen since the 1970s, the Minister for Transport and Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment, Darragh O’Brien (FF) visited Co Clare to open a service station.
He was the guest of honour at The Banner Plaza as the €20m facility was officially opened last Thursday, prior to the beginning of the fuel crisis protests. “It is a very serious and severe crisis, one that we want to see end but we will do our level best to protect our citizens, our economy and our society through this,” Minister O’Brien said of the ongoing spike in the cost of fuel.
Assurance was offered by Minister O’Brien that Ireland’s fuel and energy reserve will last the entire month of April. “It is important that people know our supplies are robust, there is no immediate supply issue, it is important that people conserve energy as best as we can. We will be bringing forward a public information campaign shortly to assist people and not to direct them. We see people are conscious of their own household bills, many people will manage that and we will assist them with that. We’ve had record numbers of people use public transport last year, with over 365m passenger journeys last year, a record amount and we want to see that grow further but as a collective as a Government on behalf of our people we will continue to assess the situation but right now for the month of April there is no issue with supply or reserves”.
Motorists and homeowners who have been hoping the Minister and Cabinet might announce further reductions to the price of fuel will be left waiting as instead he said a public information campaign will be rolled out.
When giving detail on supports announced in the past fortnight, the Minister was asked by The Clare Echo on what new measures will be put in place and responded, “Fán noimeád amháin. A week ago, €255m of supports were announced to support our supply chain like our haulage sector, the backdating of the diesel rebate scheme and the increasing of that to 12c per litre, we will continue to monitor about using the people’s own resources, it is their hard earned tax, they need to deploy in a sustainable and affordable way, by any fair assessment if one looks back on the crises we’ve worked through together like the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the cost of living crisis, COVID and prior to that Brexit, this Government and the previous Government have proven the measures we’ve brought forward were appropriate and protected our people, our economy and our society through those crises, it won’t be easy, we won’t be able to protect against every single shop or price increase but we will work hard and ensure people have the best information they need and we will continue to support them”.
It was pointed out to the fifty one year old by The Clare Echo that he omitted to mention the housing crisis, one that did not relent during his five year stint as Minister for Housing. Therefore the people of Ireland may be forgiven for lacking confidence that the same man could solve a fuel crisis.
“We discussed before you and I, over the last five years by any fair assessment we built 135,000 new homes, we brought it up a level and we need to do more, we’ve reduced vacancy rates by four percent in one year, first time buyers purchasing homes at the highest level since 2006, they are not my facts, they are the real facts and we have more to do in that regard, if one looks at the response post Ukraine and the supports through the cost of living and the COVID crisis any fair commentator would say the supports worked,” Minister O’Brien told The Clare Echo.
He praised the impact of The Banner Plaza to the local economy in Clare. “It is a service station but it is more than that. There is a fuel crisis and it is a serious issue but what is serious is 120 new jobs in the area, over €20m investment and we will work our way through this global crisis, the Government have already provided significant support in a targeted way towards reducing excise on diesel and petrol and the removal of the NORA levy as well as targeted measures for our citizens, 470,000 receiving directed supports”.
