€113k bill to heat the Leinster House hot air brigade in December alone
TD urges colleagues ‘put on an extra jumper’ to do their bit to cut costs
A TD has called on her fellow Dáil deputies to throw on an extra jumper to ease the burden on taxpayers as new figures revealed the monthly electricity bill for Leinster House more than trebled to over €113,000.
Social Democrats deputy Jennifer Whitmore called on her fellow public representatives to ‘show good example’ and layer up to reduce hot air costs in the Oireachtas.
According to records provided by the Oireachtas, in December 2021 the bill for powering Leinster House, the connected LH2000 Building, and three other adjoining buildings came to a total of €36,026.
But Oireachtas staff were stunned last December when they opened their bill to discover the total for electricity has risen to €113,887 for a single month.
Responding to the figures, Ms Whitmore called on cross party support to help drive down the bill so show solidarity with householders across the country who are struggling to cope with soaring energy bills and rampant inflation. The Wicklow TD told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘This will hopefully act as a stark reminder to the Dáil and to the Dáil authorities of the reality of the cost of living crisis.
‘We should, as politicians, show good example and wear that extra jumper rather than devolving the bill to the taxpayer, while obviously ensuring staff are looked after and don’t go cold.’
Ms Whitmore said Leinster House ‘is more complicated given its status as a historic building’, but she insisted: ‘We and the Government should do more. Politicians have to be careful not to be seen engaging in “do as I say, not as I do” politics. Struggling families do not have the luxury of the taxpayer footing every bill.’
According to Oireachtas records, the electricity bill for Leinster House had remained relatively steady over the previous 12 months up to last December, bottoming out at just over €30,000 in August before rising to €41,365 in November. Attempts to keep the overall heating bill for the Oireachtas down has been helped by the use of a wood-fired boiler system within the environs of Leinster House.
The heating bill for December 2022 was just over €22,000, which was made up of €10,104 in gas and €12,179 in purchase of wood pellets.
However, much larger gas bills are anticipated in the months to come, even though the Oireachtas is able to offset some of excess cost with their woodfired boiler.
The Oireachtas said they introduced a range of measures to cut down their usage of both electricity and gas.
External lighting protocols had been changed to eliminate almost all external floodlighting, although some buildings remain lit in the Ukrainian colours.
‘Stark reminder of reality of cost of living crisis’
‘Play our small part in addressing energy crisis’
An Oireachtas spokeswoman said they reduced the daily heating period in the Leinster House complex by introducing a ‘gap’ of 90 minutes where heating is switched off. The spokeswoman added: ‘The heating is [also] turned off at least an hour, typically two hours, before the complex closed.’
The ‘heating season’ had also been delayed by four days, with some deputies suggesting they would have been happy for it to be delayed longer.
Fine Gael Carlow-Kilkenny TD John Paul Phelan wrote to facilities management saying the heat could be kept at lower temperature in general.
‘I’m in the five storey, which isn’t a warm building but yet I always find the heat too high,’ he wrote. Fianna Fáil’s Clare TD Cathal Crowe said he found Leinster House to be generally a ‘warm building’ and said he would have no issue with ‘continuation of the heating moratorium’.
‘Perhaps some guidance could be issued on how to shut off heating in individual offices too,’ he said, ‘the heating controls seem to be hidden away from sight.’
Green Party TD and Heritage Minister Malcolm Noonan said it was ‘an excellent initiative’, asking if staff and politicians could also be reminded to switch off computers, equipment, and lights each evening.
He wrote: ‘If we all get into the habit of shutting everything down each evening, we could save a lot of energy and play our small part in addressing the energy crisis.’
Independent TD Matt Shanahan said the Oireachtas could ‘rest assured I have not personally witnessed any polar bears running down the corridors as yet’.
The Waterford-based deputy wrote: ‘I have the utmost confidence that nearly all Oireachtas members and staff can manage another few days of this heating moratorium.’
However, the ‘heating moratorium’ was not welcomed by all of our Dáil deputies.
Fine Gael TD Michael Ring complained his office was ‘extremely cold’ and asked if he could get a stand-alone heater if the main system was not going to switched on.
Sinn Féin TD Réada Cronin said she was ‘absolutely freezing’ and emailed saying: ‘The winter has definitely started today.’
An Oireachtas spokeswoman said Leinster House was in the process of conducting ‘out-of-hour audits’ to try and identify unnecessary uses of energy.
She said: ‘We have turned off air-conditioning systems, and these will remain off at least until summer 2023. ‘Air-cooling systems in server rooms remain operational but air temperatures have been raised wherever possible to reduce energy use.’
The Oireachtas also said they were looking at the provision of additional e-charging points to encourage politicians to go with electric vehicles.
Energy efficient LED lighting has been introduced in almost all the complex and Leinster House said they would consider any other suggestions on how they could reduce costs and emissions.