Energy imports near top in EU at 91%

IRELAND has one of the highest energy dependency rates of any country in Europe with 91% of all the country’s energy needs having to be imported, according to EU figures.

A survey of energy consumption and production patterns of the 27 EU member states shows that Ireland has the fourth-highest dependency rate after Cyprus, Malta and Luxembourg — all much smaller states with little or no natural energy resources.

The figures also show that our dependency level is continuing to increase as imports rose to 14.2m tonnes of oil equivalent in 2006 — a 4.1% increase on the previous year compared with an EU average of 2.4%.