Louth County Council told to make 'bold statement' and drop fossil fuels

Louth County Council have been told it could make a "bold statement" and make a complete transition away from fossil fuels.

Fine Gael councillor John Reilly told the March meeting of Louth County Council that "it would be great" if the local authority stopped using diesel fuel in all of its vehicles and instead used Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO).

A spokesperson for Louth County Council said it has moved towards electrifying its fleet before moving to HVO where possible.

However, the spokesperson said it is not achievable to transition to a 100% HVO fleet at at this time.

"I know in the local authority has moved as many vehicles as it can at the minute towards HVO," he said.

Dundalk councillor Robert Nash questioned if Louth County Council had considered using electric or hybrid vehicles for two new fire engines recently acquired for the county. 

While Independent councillor Maeve Yore asked when the Louth Civil Defence vehicles would also become electric, and said some of the vehicles on display in the St Patrick's Day parade were from 2007. 

David Hanratty, Director of Operations and Environment Delivery with Louth County Council said Civil Defence Vehicles are funded and selected by the Department of Defence. 

Mr Hanratty the same applies to fire engines but said there is room for a third fire engine which the local authority hopes to have by the end of the year. 

"In relation to fire engines, again it’s similar to the Civil Defence Vehicles. We’re assigned vehicles. We’ll lobby for the vehicles but I suppose it’s a good news story.

We’ve got two new fire engines and they appeared in the St Patrick's Day parade. It’s a really good investment," he said. 

Cllr Reilly also questioned if the rollout of Electric Vehicle (EV) charging points could be done alongside the private sector. 

"I know Dublin City Council were very proactive with the rollout of EV chargers where they engaged the private sector. Basically an EV charger is just a vending machine that sells electricity.

I think if we leave it to the Council, the roll out is going to be too slow, but the private sector tends to move faster," he said. 

The Fine Gael councillor said there's several villages in the county without access to an EV charger. 

"I see Castlebellingham has no charger, Dunleer has no charger and I’ve campaigned previously because Omeath has no charger. With fuel prices at the moment, we need these chargers and people need to plan their journeys," he said. 

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There were also calls for Louth County Council to explore the possibility of becoming the first county to use hydrogen vehicles for its fleet. 

Fianna Fáil councillor Shane McGuinness said he thinks "people are afraid" of the term Hydrogen but said they are zero emission vehicles. 

The spokesperson for Louth County Council said there has been a regional study on the use of Hydrogen vehicles but said there are "no guidelines" to follow.

"It’s not something that we are getting any direction we can take. As a local authority we would need to have some sort of central governance, but we’re not seeing that coming just yet," he said. 

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.