Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said the price of gas could double in the next few months - but that the Government is confident it won't have to ration.
The deputy leader of the country was speaking after he opened the new red panda and snow leopard habitats at Dublin Zoo on Friday morning. He explained that while the price of gas has increased "fourfold" on a global level, he doesn't expect things to get that drastic in Ireland.
Mr Varadkar said: "A lot of people are struggling. The global price of gas has increased fourfold and that has an impact on the price of electricity. Thankfully, we won't see the prices increase by fourfold, but they are going to go up a lot. We may see gas and energy prices double. We will do what we can to help out.
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"We don't anticipate that rationing will be necessary. Last winter, there were concerns about electricity shortages, but in the end there was no issue. It's a concern for the next couple of months, particularly if Russia cut off gas supplies to Europe. But we're confident that we won't be in a position to ration any energy."
President Vladimir Putin has threatened to cut off the gas supply to Europe that comes from Russia, but that will not have an immediate effect on Ireland, according to the Tánaiste.
He said: "We believe our gas supply is secure. About a quarter of our gas is through Mayo and the rest from the UK via the North Sea. We don't use Russian gas.
"If President Putin cuts off the gas to Europe, that wouldn't have an effect on us, but it would on our European partners, and that subsequently could have a knock-on effect on us."
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