EU environment targets will put Ireland out of business

The Irish Exporters Association (IEA) have said that the EU’s recent targets for greenhouse gas emissions and renewable energy use will cause heavy cost base increases for Irish manufacturing.

The IEA claims that meeting the new EU environmental targets could cost Irish businesses up to €2.6 billion every year.

Furthermore, the extra burden resulting from the emissions targets is likely to put many Irish companies out of business if they are exposed to non-EU competition.

IEA’s chief executive, John Whelan, is encouraging the Irish government to negotiate lower targets for Ireland. He said: “Inevitably, that extra expense will be too much of a burden for some manufacturing companies, especially those who must compete against non-EU companies.”

He went on to say that wind power is a technology for which Ireland’s weather gives the country a natural advantage, and called for more funding and network planning to make the most of the resource.

Whelan concluded: “The Irish Exporters Association also calls for an extensive sector-by-sector analysis to be undertaken to establish precisely where the burden will fall most heavily and having determined that to develop imaginative and workable solutions for those sectors.”