Only four days' oil left after Iran upheaval and strike here
IRELAND was almost nearly out of oil amid political upheaval in Iran in 1979 and a strike at Dublin Port, newly released State papers reveal.
At one stage during July, the country had just four days' supply left as ministers and officials held crisis talks with oil company chiefs.
Energy Minister Des O'Malley warned of the "serious situation" not 70 miles from Dublin with creameries about to close and tourism seriously affected by dwindling supplies.
Such was the extent of the crisis that Taoiseach Jack Lynch in a "secret" document dated April 26, 1979, instructed that the Government's committee on emergency planning -- which had not met in recent years -- should be reactivated to draw up arrangements to maintain emergency supplies.
This was the committee which in the past had been responsible for co-ordinating departmental "war books" dealing with a nuclear war situation.
Behind the extreme measures was the biggest energy crisis to hit the globe since 1973 as the overthrow of the Shah of Iran and the political upheaval that followed threatened world supplies.
Ireland's woes were compounded by an industrial dispute involving tanker drivers and terminal workers which further reduced the country's precarious oil supplies.
Crisis was averted as the dispute was eventually settled and oil supplies returned to meet demand.
One Department of the Taoiseach briefing document dated April 10 pointed out that under European community rules each country was supposed to hold 90 days of oil stocks against emergencies such as the 1973 oil crisis and as a result of the more recent revolution in Iran.
Storage
The following day, Industry, Commerce and Energy Minister Des O'Malley met the chief executives of the country's major oil companies and announced a government order to control the supply and distribution of petroleum oils because of the "exigencies of the common good".
Every sector of the economy was hit. Even the garda storage capacity -- particularly north of a line from Dublin to Galway -- "seems to be extremely inadequate".
Other documents show how by July, despite the government move to control supplies, the situation had gravely worsened.
Following a special meeting of the government, the Irish Congress of Trade unions was called in for "urgent talks" following the failure to end the deadlock at Dublin port.
"The Taoiseach said that the Government had to decide what to do in a situation in which nine men were preventing the importation and distribution of oil products and, in the process, were defying their own unions," union officials were told.
But it was information provided to mr O'Malley that starkly illustrated the perilous state of the country's oil supplies.
"If all available stocks were pooled they would amount, in total, to about four days' supply," one briefing document warned.
Harsh lessons were learned from the crisis and another document from a Department of Foreign Affairs file shows how just how important a role energy conservation was to play in government departments.
Offering tips on saving energy, the document suggested that electric fires should not be used except in "special circumstances" and where possible, one bar should be used instead of two.
It also advised that electric typewriters and electric office machines and equipment should be switched off when not in use and that all staff "should wear a reasonable amount of clothing -- wearing additional clothing will make lower temperatures tolerable".
- Fergus Black
Irish Independent
