An emergency rationing plan with just 130 strategically located service stations throughout the country could be tasked with the supply petrol and diesel in the coming winter. Workers in 40 key designated areas would be allocated fuel – as part of an emergency plan in a worst-case scenario in preparation for winter fuel rationing. The Government is planning for what could be a winter of severe fuel shortages here, throughout Europe and the world, as Russia threatens supplies in retaliation for the sanctions imposed by Europe against Russia. Under the proposed winter fuel rationing plan to be enforced only in a crisis situation, fuel would be drawn from national reserves with incoming supplies sent to a network of 130 designated stations across the country.
Emergency and Essential Services
A drawn up list of around 40 categories of emergency and essential workers will have access to the network such as ambulance service, the ESB, Irish Water, local health workers and food delivery vehicles.
Essential Worker Categories
Four categories of essential workers would be allocated a ration of fuel to get them to and from work. Those categories are frontline emergency services, people in commercial aviation, public transport, healthcare workers, agriculture and food processing and production, child-minders and teachers, postal services and undertakers.
Gardaí or Defence Forces personnel may be placed at petrol stations to ensure rationing rules are followed.
Contingency Plans
Contingency plans would also be put in place for gas rationing with limits for home use while prioritising schools, hospitals and other essential services. A newly set up ‘Energy Security Emergency Group’ will examine all scenarios in the event of a severe fuel shortage.
Ireland has a ‘National Oil Reserves Agency’ that holds emergency reserves for about 85 days. This will be boosted as much as is possible in the coming weeks with supplies from the international markets.
Counterproductive Sanctions
European Union countries are preparing for the possibility that Russia could further reduce or cut off energy supplies the coming winter, in retaliation for the aggressive and counterproductive use sanctions by the European Union countries together with their idiotic politician’s queuing up for photo calls with the regime in Kiev. Micheal Martins virtue signalling rants during his pilgrimage to Ukraine certainly didn’t help either.