The country is edging closer to an energy supply shock that will hit the economy.<\/p>\n
The only way this will be avoided is if the war in Iran ends very soon.<\/p>\n
That seems to be the message coming from the Government as the prospect of further support measures loom into view.<\/p>\n
No one who sits around the Cabinet table is openly speculating about what such a shock would look like.<\/p>\n
Although the fuel crisis of the 1970s has been referenced.<\/p>\n
That saw price rises across the board, speed limits being tightened and even car-free Sundays.<\/p>\n
The Government’s appeal to use energy sparingly this time around is being finalised.<\/p>\n
However, there are no plans for the Taoiseach to make a national address on the issue.<\/p>\n
So, not quite panic stations yet.<\/p>\n
When asked if the Government was thinking about rationing energy, Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien answered: “We are not in that space right now”.<\/p>\n
As things stand, there is no intervention by the coalition on the agenda, and a spokesperson said nothing was imminent.<\/p>\n
However, the Taoiseach, T\u00e1naiste and Transport Minister are in daily contact as the crisis begins to bite.<\/p>\n
Many in Government feel that it is only a matter of time before more financial support for businesses and households will have to be introduced.<\/p>\n
Such has been the damage to energy facilities in the Gulf region, this aid may be required even if there is a swift cessation to the war.<\/p>\n
There is an expectation that the European Union will announce measures soon to bolster its energy reserves, along with the outline of a common approach to cope with energy shortages.<\/p>\n
For the moment, there is a fully stocked oil reserve here which might offer some reassurance.<\/p>\n
Then again, a Government speaking about having adequate reserves for the months ahead evokes grim memories.<\/p>\n
Does it have echoes of the bleak winter of 2010 when those in power clung to the apparent certainty that the country was “fully funded” for months to come?<\/p>\n
Hopefully not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The country is edging closer to an energy supply shock that will hit the economy. The only way…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-377144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377144","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=377144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}