"Of course the prices of so-called 'carbon fuels' – gas, oil and coal are fixed internationally. We can’t cap them. We can do plenty of other things though.
"Firstly, we can control how much we use. That's why a major topic this week is energy efficiency. By investing in the quality of our buildings – better insulation, new boilers and so on – we can save a lot of money on heating and create employment at the same time. It's a win-win.
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"Secondly we can be much smarter about when we switch things on and off than we used to be. The internet can give all of us control of how much energy we use. This morning we heard that 1.6M Irish people have smart phones. All those people could use the phone in their pocket to control the heating in their homes and save money. Not may do so today but in a couple of years that will be normal. Energy ministers want to accelerate the pace of this sort of initiative by introducing smarter energy meters for example.
"Thirdly, there are power sources that are not based on carbon – that we can harness from nature. In Ireland that is mainly wind. Further south in Europe that is mainly solar power. My colleagues and I are discussing how we can get the best out of these renewable energy sources. Can old fashioned storage heaters be replaced with clever ones that soak up heat from wind power when it is blowing a gale and release it when it is freezing? The answer is yes. We need to invest in a smart electricity grid to get the benefits of this. It can be done and it will mean we get better value from our spend in renewables."
