![\"Home-heating](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/5e7ef64c-a9a2-4520-b563-8966340f77f4.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHowever, there are no plans to introduce pandemic-style travel restrictions to conserve Ireland\u2019s fuel supply as the energy crisis resulting from the US-Israeli invasion of Iran deepens worldwide.<\/p>\n
Mr Harris said it \u201cmay well be necessary again\u201d for the government to give advice to citizens on conserving energy akin to the messaging around saving energy during the early part of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine led to global gas shortages.<\/p>\n
Mr Harris said while the current energy crisis \u201cis very different to the covid crisis\u201d he said it is a \u201cvery challenging situation too.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no plans currently to adapt people\u2019s travel schedules,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Harris said that people will change their travel habits anyway due to the increase in price and defended the government\u2019s recent intervention on petrol and diesel prices. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe staged one of the biggest interventions in European Union last week per head of population, but no government in the world can absorb or should absorb all of the cost \u2013 it\u2019s not possible economically.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Home-heating oil costs have jumped. Photo: Getty<\/p>\n
Today’s news in 90 Seconds – Monday, March 30<\/p>\n
He said they are examining the circumstances \u201ceach and every month\u201d around the energy crisis.<\/p>\n
Mr Harris said there was also no intention to call for mass working from home and said there were also no plans for the Defence Forces to police petrol stations to make sure only key workers get fuel, \u201cwe\u2019re nowhere near that point.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Irish people are full of common sense and decency,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The T\u00e1naiste said there were currently \u201cadequate supplies\u201d in Ireland and Europe for the supply of fuel.<\/p>\n
\u201cBear in mind this is a war that is seeing energy supplies destroyed. That does have real consequences in terms of global supplies and no country is immune to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Harris said the government is trying to \u201cseek a de-escalation” of the conflict and preparing for the \u201cvarious economic outcomes\u201d and a Spring forecast for the economy will be provided in April.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a great sense of economic anxiety and worry,\u201d he said, but believed real incomes to rise this year.<\/p>\n
He said governments around the world are currently preparing for a variety of \u201cscenarios\u201d in the fuel crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no supply concerns in Ireland today, there are no supply concerns in Europe today but again what if we\u2019re having this conversation many months down the road and infrastructure is still being destroyed in the middle east and the gulf region and energy supplies disrupted?\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that this energy crisis was the \u201cgreatest that the world has ever seen\u201d.<\/p>\n
The International Energy Agency told Eurogroup Finance Ministers last week that according to their estimates even if the conflict in the Middle East ended today, the damage to energy infrastructure would take \u201cthe best part of a year\u201d to repair.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter what happens here there is going to be a challenge, it\u2019s only a matter of how grave and significant that challenge is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Harris said the government will be looking at how other countries are responding and \u201cwe\u2019ll have to decide at the end of May whether the current measures are the right measures or if they need to be adapted, ended or changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The T\u00e1naiste said the latest consumer price inflation estimate rising to 3.6pc in the 12 months to March \u201cvindicated\u201d the government\u2019s move to provide energy support last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this conflict goes on for a prolonged period of time, the scale of the economic challenge that the world will face \u2013 and Ireland will not be immune from that \u2013 will be very significant.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got to get the balance right…between acting now to help people like we did last week, and we will keep that under review and keeping some economic powder dry for the time ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re fortunate to live in a country that does have a degree of economic fire power; full employment, budgetary surpluses, money set aside in terms of fiscal buffers that all helps, that\u2019s all important.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said warnings at the Eurogroup meeting from the IEA about the scale of the crisis \u201cstruck\u201d him which set out that the current fuel crisis is worse than the oil crisis in 1970, 1976 and gas crisis in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis current energy crisis globally is larger than all three combined, and is ongoing and worsening by the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
He acknowledged that there is \u201chuge frustration\u201d amongst the public \u201cat a time when inflation was falling, at a time when the economy is growing well to now see this significant economic impact not parking the humanitarian impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will respond in Ireland, we will get through from a position of strength, but I do I have to advise the Irish people that really the only sensible, responsible course of action to take is step by step.\u201d<\/p>\n
The T\u00e1naiste said he will be engaging with the IFA and farm contractors this week along with the Minister for Agriculture regarding the fuel crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll continue to engage, we\u2019ll continue to listen and trying to get that balance between responding in the here and now and preparing for what could be a very difficult time ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"However, there are no plans to introduce pandemic-style travel restrictions to conserve Ireland\u2019s fuel supply as the energy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,898,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-373176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-latest-news-ticker","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}