Madam, - Your report on the launch by Minister Noel Dempsey of the "Power of One" campaign (The Irish Times, September 27th) provides another fine example of the lack of any real action by the Government to change energy use.
The campaign is designed to "encourage the public to use energy more efficiently" and the Minister says he hopes it will result in a "sea-change" in behaviour. Sadly, however, the campaign will have no real effect since he assures us all that he is not going to be "regulating behaviour" or "restricting lifestyle choice" - clear code for assuring everyone that it is all right to continue buying SUVs as long as we turn off the occasional light.
It is time for this nonsense to end. If the Government is serious about its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol and if it genuinely wants to reduce our CO2 output, then it needs to do what it has done with smoky coal, plastic bags and workplace smoking - make some regulations.
There are a myriad of things that could easily be done, many by Ministerial order without the need for new legislation. Ideas include banning the installation of inefficient gas heating systems (as was done over a year ago in the UK); introducing a car tax system that rewards people for using their cars less and for choosing more efficient cars - not just in fuel usage but in their production and impact on the environment; putting an environmental tax on non-energy efficient appliances and using the money from it to discount the efficient ones; requiring office buildings to switch off their lights at night; or requiring that all cement used on State building projects be "green cement".
Measures such as this would be far more effective than a PR stunt like "Power of One". While the Minister may deny that the campaign is simply "window-dressing", I feel that his informing us of the fact that he now switches his TV from standby to off is hardly going to have Al Gore feeling that his job is done. - Yours, etc,
DIARMAID MAC AONGHUSA, Shankill, Co Dublin.