Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan has said he would have no hesitancy in challenging Ryanair, if the airline was shown to be charging excessive prices for for people flying to countries having fled from Ukraine.
In the first instance, however, he would be making contact with the Ukrainian ambassador to Ireland on the matter "in the next day or two".
“I want to listen to the evidence first...If there is any evidence of that, of course,” Mr Ryan told The Irish Times.
Ryanair has rejected claims that its fares have increased between Poland and Ireland in recent weeks in spite of repeated complaints by the ambassador Larysa Gerasko.
Speaking in Dublin, Mr Ryan said that during Covid the Government had worked with the low-cost airline, notably on humanitarian missions to get people home.
“I’m sure the company will respond in a similar way, if there is any evidence of that, to change their algorithms so that there isn’t any pricing that is preventing people coming to safety,” he added.
Mr Ryan, who also has responsibility for energy, said short-term measures to reduce overall energy consumption in Ireland were being considered.
These could include accelerating rollout of microgeneration; increasing the number of companies producing their own power and the introduction of “time-of-day pricing” for householders.
The pricing move was with a view to flattening evening peak demand for electricity and to ensure less gas is used – which would require greater deployment of smart meters, he confirmed.
On reports that a State-owned liquefied natural gas storage facility was being considered, he said a variety of options were being looked at. From talking to energy companies in the US last week, he believed the energy sector was looking at scaling up conversion of offshore wind to green hydrogen using electrolysis technology with a 10-year timeframe.
“That is where investment is going to go. That is where the likely technological development is going,” he believed. “The advantage of that as an energy solution for us is that we are relying on our own power.”
This was also reflected in Europe's reconfiguring of its energy in light of the Ukraine war and its vulnerability due to reliance on oil and gas supply from Russia.
In the interim, Ireland would need 2 gigawatts of gas infrastructure with the ability to switch it on and off quickly if the wind drops. This was to ensure flexibility in the electricity supply, “but we will use less gas”, Mr Ryan said.
The Minister said with the current energy crunch new data centres could not be accommodated on the national grid “unless they are part of the solution”. That means having connection to renewable power, having back-up gas generation to help balance the grid and being located on the grid to reduce fossil fuel usage and to optimise use of renewable energy.
