asked the Minister for Transport and Power if, in view of the serious effects which the present power crisis is having on all sections of the community, he will ensure that candlemaking firms are enabled to continue in production so that some alternative source of light may be available to the public.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Candlemaking Firms.
22.
I am informed by the ESB that every effort is being made to share available power as fairly as possible amongst all customers on a rota basis and to give the best available advance notice to each customer of the times he is at risk of interruption of supply. Such a rota involves an extensive switching arrangement throughout the country. Each switch controls supply to a large number of customers. It is not possible in the vast majority of cases to maintain supply to individual customers unless all other customers controlled by the same switch are also to have supply available to them. For this reason, it is necessary strictly to limit the number of categories of customer to be exempted from supply interruption.
Could I ask the Minister if he has received representations from candlemaking firms, and particularly from one in my constituency, to the effect that, because of the nature of their business, they need to have power for a period of five hours before they can commence production and that, as a consequence of the power cuts which they have been experiencing recently, they have been unable to produce any candles although supplies which they had going to the export market were withdrawn and supplied to the home market in the emergency situation which arose? As a consequence of the power cuts they were unable to produce any candles and are unable to do so.
I have had no representations.
Will the Minister accept that what I have indicated in my supplementary question is a fact and, that being so, could he indicate whether he thinks it is reasonable that the ESB should deprive people not only of electric light but also of the possibility of substituting for it with candles because that is what is happening?
I will take up with the ESB the matter raised by the Deputy. In my opinion the ESB have been very good in the past few weeks in this crisis. They have endeavoured to facilitate people as much as possible. There are many factors outside their control. Obviously to the person who is making a case his case seems genuine but the ESB cannot create an excessive number of exempted categories or eventually it would end up with everybody having a supply and then everybody would be without a supply as a natural follow on. I am hopeful the talks going on at the moment will result in a settlement but if not I will take up with the ESB the point made by the Deputy.
Even if the talks result in a settlement, would the Minister still take up the matter because this kind of situation could recur? While it is clearly a matter of concern that the ESB cannot give special services to every category seeking them, I would ask the Minister to give serious consideration to the problem that arises when people are deprived of electric light and, at the same time, are deprived of candles as a substitute for the electricity.
I will take up the matter with the ESB.