The Social Democrats have called upon the Minister for Communications to ensure that contingency plans are in place to deal with any potential natural gas shortages amid supply concerns in the UK which also supplies gas to Ireland.
The party’s political director Anne-Marie McNally said:
“The National Grid in the UK has warned it may not have enough gas to meet UK demand today, and has asked suppliers to provide more. Given that Ireland depends on UK supplies for gas (along with Corrib and the Cork gas-heads), if the UK are making contingency plans for a potential shortage, Ireland should have contingency plans in place also.
“This is an issue that the National Emergency Coordination Group needs to get to grips with. With extremely cold weather sweeping the UK and Ireland, there will naturally be a spike in demand for gas from large users such as industry and businesses as well as consumers.
ENDS
1 March 2018