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Ireland is one of the most vulnerable countries in the European Union to
energy supply-chain disruptions. Ireland’s Central Statistics Office
identified that the country was dependent on imports for up to 80% of its
energy supply in 2024. This is no surprise for an island nation such as
Ireland.
What is surprising is that the Irish government has for decades routinely
subjected the country to political policies which have only weakened Irish
energy security. Successive Taoisigh have consistently prioritised
international climate goals over the affordability of the economy’s most
basic cost unit.
The natural result of this systemic policy failure is a lived reality for Irish
citizens and business owners across the country. Ireland now boasts the
highest household electricity prices in the EU at €40.42 per 100 kWh. Not
to mention Ireland’s governmental instincts to tax everything under the
sun leading to inflated fuel prices. As of May 2026 approximately 59% of the
cost of petrol in Ireland is tax, for diesel it is 51%.
Despite Irish politicians’ commitment to international climate agreements
and the European Commission’s green energy transition, Ireland is still
reliant on fossil fuels. In 2024 fossil fuels met 81% of the country’s energy
consumption, of which 60% was oil, 36% was natural gas, 2% was coal, and
1% was peat.
Though Ireland remains dependent on these resources the Fianna
Fáil–Fine Gael coalition have consistently refused to consider the
unthinkable option: that Ireland reinvest in its fossil fuel industry for the
sake of domestic energy security.
Ireland relies on gas imports from Scotland, in addition to domestic
extraction at the Corrib Gas Field. However, the Corrib Gas Field is
estimated to be depleted by the early 2030s. With an impending domestic
supply crunch only years away, one might expect the government to
develop a replacement. However at the behest of the Green Party in 2021
Ireland banned the issuance of new oil and gas exploration licences.
Some might say the Green Party’s insistence to ban nuclear fission in the
Electricity Regulation Act 1999 was the beginning of Ireland’s woes. The
Irish nuclear energy non-profit 18for0 has argued for years that nuclear
energy would lower energy costs and assist in Ireland’s climate neutral
targets. Unfortunately for the Irish public, the government maintained its
anti-nuclear stance consistently for decades.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin made recent public statements discussing the
need for greater energy security and that the government was open to the
idea of investing in nuclear energy. In Dáil Éireann, only days after his
remarks, he was questioned on this pivot and backtracked into standard
rhetoric about renewables such as wind and solar.
Facing a turbulent environment within his own party amidst frequent
backbench revolts, Martin about-faced again. His party now intends to
produce legislation that will remove the statutory prohibition on the
development of nuclear energy in Ireland.
However it is here that the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s words
should be echoed. It is too little too late. Germany shut down its nuclear
energy capacity and the CDU cannot commit to its revitalisation. If an
economy as industrious as Germany is reluctant to reinvest in its nuclear
sector, then little old Ireland will not have a hope in hell of starting from
scratch.
Instead the Irish government now lauds the opening of the Celtic
Interconnector pipeline to import nuclear-generated energy from France
as a solution to the country’s cost crisis. The Taoiseach has further hinted at
electrical integration with Spain. While this all sounds at face value as a
promising development, Ireland’s grid capacity faces significant strain.
EirGrid, the state body responsible for maintaining the nation’s electrical
grid, has revealed it estimates that by 2030 approximately 32% of Ireland’s
electricity will be diverted to supply the growing number of data centres in
the country.
Furthermore, it is believed that the intensity of data centres on Ireland’s
electricity grid has led to an estimated €360 increase in household energy
bills between 2015 and 2023. Further data shows that Irish households pay
an average 36.8c/Kwh for electricity and 7.6c/Kwh in network charges. By
contrast, data centres pay drastically reduced rates of 19.1c/Kwh and
0.7c/Kwh respectively.
Interestingly, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), Ireland’s
civil service think tank, has identified that Ireland’s high energy costs are a
result of its dependence on gas. And yet instead of expanding Ireland’s
available energy resources, the government has consistently acted to
legislate in favour of artificial scarcity.
Consider for instance that in 2022 other EU countries sought to create LNG
terminals to secure their energy supplies following the supply-chain
disruptions of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Yet the Irish government was,
and still is, late to this development because of governmental
commitment to appease the Green Party by banning the installation of
LNG terminals.
Instead of investing into domestic energy resources which would provide
the short-term economic relief many Irish businesses and households
need, the government is insistent that solar panels are the most efficient
source of energy for a country in which six months of every year is covered
in rain clouds.
Regardless, whatever arcane ideological motives the faceless political
parties of Ireland’s so-called ‘centre’ actually are, their consequences have
been ruinous. Now, in a world where the Strait of Hormuz is closed to
energy exports, Irish politicians appear to be clamouring and backtracking
at the same time. The compounding economic crisis they have engineered
through artificially high energy costs and consistent disregard for the
interests of SMEs is slowly reaching its boiling point. Additionally, Dublin
has become increasingly confrontational to its economic patron, the
United States. The Trump administration’s apparent aim to end what the
Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has called Ireland’s ‘tax scam’ does
not bode well for the Irish government.
After years of climate action policies catered towards progressive voters,
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael cannot even conceive of the fact that much of
the body politic has come to view carbon-taxes with chagrin. In fact, one
government official even stated amidst calls to cut the carbon tax that ‘it’s
not a tax, it’s a fund.’ This encapsulates Irish officials’ attitudes towards
public monies. It is there for them to take, whether you like it or not.
The sheer disconnect from the public is astonishing and unique in the EU.
Left-wing and right-wing governments alike across Europe answer to their
electorate’s demands and shape their policy provisions on that basis. Only
in a country as parochial and devoid of statecraft as Ireland could see the
ideological fancies of individual members of government trump the
interests of the public.
Ultimately Ireland’s energy crisis is an artificially created phenomenon,
facilitated by the Frankenstein’s-monster approach to political policies by
successive Taoisigh.
All of which leads us to the simple reality that failure is a policy choice, and it is a choice which Irish politicians have chosen consistently and easily. There is no sign that the rising cost of energy will abate and, though European leaders might enjoy the temporary respite of energy
politics during the warm Summer weather, it is very much a calm before
the storm. With the coming Winter likely to see further cost increases,
European leaders will have difficulty explaining to their citizens why their
sacred climate targets must remain at the cost of economic deprivation. In
Ireland the ruling Fianna Fáil–Fine Gael coalition can expect their polling to
crater.