asked the Minister for Transport and Power the estimates, if any, of the increase in the consumption of fuel arising from the change from summer time to winter time.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Fuel Consumption.
7.
As I indicated to the House in reply to a question on 10th July, 1975, it has been estimated that the continuation of "summer time"— that is GMT + 1—throughout the entire year would result in a saving of less than 0.08 per cent of our current annual oil consumption.
Could I ask the Minister what that represents in tonnage or in cash?
I could not give it in cash. The ESB estimate that the amount is about 4,000 tons a year of the nation's annual oil consumption.
Could I ask the Minister how he can reconcile this lack of saving of energy with the reasons given by the Minister for Finance last year when he increased the price of petrol by 15p a gallon in order to discourage people from using more? Surely, this would be a worthwhile saving which should have been encouraged, and possibly we should have a new look at ending "summer time", possibly looking at February or March or some other month with a view to conserving energy.
I am anxious to help the Deputy, but he is making a speech.
Sorry. I will rephrase my question. Would the Minister reconsider this whole question with a view to saving more fuel because as fuel increases in price and more people will be using fuel as more houses are built——
This is a very long question.
It is very important to the economy.
Of course, I am very concerned that anything that can be done to conserve our use of energy should be done. We are one of the three countries in Europe operating "summer time" at the moment, but there is a proposal by the French Government that there should be uniform "summer time" brought in throughout the Community in the future, and this will be discussed at the next council meeting of energy ministers which, presumably, will not take place until the new year. We should wait to see what is decided there before we start readjusting. It is uniform in Britain and Ireland but Italy operates a different system. If we can get uniformity throughout the nine European countries, we should aim at that.
I agree. Surely the Minister is aware that the further west you go the brighter it is, and as we are probably furthest west from the rest of Europe we would have to look at it in relation to our own geographical position?
Yes.
It should be on the basis of our own geographical position, not on the basis of what other countries are doing.
I appreciate that.
It would seem that thousands of tons of fuel are wasted. Would the Minister consider leaving the time the same the whole year round? Complaints have come to me from teachers that they have to give up games when the time is changed. This is bad for students. I would favour having the same time the whole year round.
You understand, this is a matter for the Minister for Justice. He arranges that. My personal opinion is the same as Deputy Callanan's. It was introduced for one year about three or four years ago and I thought it was a good system but there were many complaints from teachers and parents about children going to school in the dark of the morning, which in country areas is a big problem.
Complaints have been made to me about games having to be scrapped because of the shorter evenings.
My personal feeling would be to do what Deputy Callanan suggests.