Ciara Phelan: Energy & Transport Minister Eamon Ryan tells me people could slow down while driving which is a “practical example” of what people can do to make the fuel in the tank go further

47 comments

1. Not sure I have words for this.

2. Good man Eamon.

3. In theory he’s not wrong but it’s just more tone deafness from Ryan

4. Ah now, you can’t be making suggestions as to how people can make changes personally to save on costs. That’s not allowed around here.

5. Slowing down to a STOP and keeping it in PARK would do a LOT to save fuel. We are in the presence of genius.

6. He’s not wrong but clearly has issues reading the audience.

   The US did exactly this in the 70’s.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Maximum_Speed_Law

7. Put on a coat and resume working from home and that will save you a bundle.

8. 20,000 car charges in the country might help too.

9. Bicycle wanker.

10. I’ll try spinning that’s a good trick

11. I drove from Limerick

12. First thing he’s said that wasnt complete nonsense

13. This is a proven and effective strategy of fuel conservation, and won’t make a huge difference for people in urban or suburban areas.. Cars are most efficient at around 50mph and then rapidly lose fuel efficiency.

    Good advice from Eamon.

14. People are already slowing down, he hasn’t provided new information.

15. I mean, he’s really not wrong. If you’re cruising at 120 you’ll be using a fair deal more fuel than cruising at 100. Reducing national speed limits to lower fuel consumption is a valid, if not highly unpopular, measure. Bonus points, you might reduce our already low number of road deaths even further.

    Good luck with enforcement though.

16. While it might seem like a stupidly obvious to say, he’s not wrong. I only was thinking the other day on the M50 that a large portion of the population have no concept of how to drive to conserve fuel, I was surrounded other drivers who were accelerating harshly, going up into another cars arse, having to brake harshly to compensate and then repeating the process.

17. He’s not wrong, but this won’t help him

18. Lay off the brakes, leave the engine slow. It’s not bad advice really on any given day..

19. Other tips:

    – Drive in convoys. 5 cars driving to the Lidl will sav fuel as the first car will create a slip stream reducing drag for the other cars

    – Gut your car of everything. Back seats, glove box contents, wheel brace and spare tyre. Everything out! Reduced weight means reduced consumption. Ching ching

    – Along the same lines, lose weight ya fat cunt.

20. A lot of “well, he’s not wrong” comments here.

    These comments from a transport minister are along the same lines of a housing minister telling people to move back in with their parents to save for a deposit.

21. If I put a sail on the roof of my car the wind could push me to work

22. I’ve been f1 style drafting cars in front of me to save fuel.

    Government really need to enable DRS all the time if they are serious.

23. Sure we may aswell all just stay home and paint our fences or whatever other shite he was banging on about in the pandemic

24. Yeah, let all the commuters leave at 5 AM so they can travel at 50 km/h to get in for work on time

25. Surely this guys time has elapsed? Water it down with all this rain lying about will be next.

26. Next thing you know he will be telling BMW and audi drivers to indicate! This country is a joke!

27. Seriously, will someone just put the straight jacket on Eamon. He’d be in a happier place.

28. Oh Ireland..

29. Calm down people, Ciara Phelan’s comment was designed to bait you. She was hoping you’d react like this

30. One time I burned through a full tank of petrol driving to Donegal at around 85MPH. Driving home at 60MPH only used half a tank.

31. Technically they’re correct but that’s such a non solution I dont even know ow where to begin the criticism.

32. You lazy things, why do you even have a car?

    Just pull the car behind you and get plenty of excercise.

    Just get rid of the car.

    JUST STOP BEING POOR.

33. Eat a banker

34. Do you know what would help fuel consumption Eamonn? Allowing more flexibility in WFH to reduce the amount of cars on the road and demand for petrol and diesel.

35. That lad must eat hash cakes for breakfast lunch and dinner…….what a tit

36. Eamon Ryan is the lunatic who suggested that a village should have a pool of cars shared by all the locals, and they could organise rotas between them for their use. Oh, and if you didn’t live in the village you could cycle from your home to the village to avail of this wonderful idea.

    The man is certifiably nuts. How he ever got elected, or learned to tie his shoelaces, is beyond me

37. Where can I get green diesel ⛽ haha

38. Where can I get green diesel ⛽ haha

39. I hope this doesn’t backfire with those who are already doing 50% of speed limit…

40. In fairness, there’s often a sizeable difference in fuel consumption when you drive at 110 v 120 on the motorway and very little difference in arrival time

41. Yeah, let’s really stick it to the Duchy of Muscovy.

42. If you eat your breakfast really slowly you can have it for lunch as well.

43. Thank fuck I don’t drive in these times.

44. He’s not wrong. A general public aeareness campaign on how to change driving patterns to improve fuel efficiency mightn’t be the worst idea.

    The problem is that it’s Eamon Ryan saying it out loud so regardless of whether it’s right or wrong people will jump on it and criticise him and the idea.

45. Having the correct tyre pressure was a kind of meme Obama said years ago but turns out to have solid maths.

46. There are always too many cars on the road and I don’t believe that half of them are going anywhere important. Stop going for a spin, get à new hobby and get off the road. That will reduce your fuel costs

47. Dublin already has the 36th worst traffic congestion in the entire world, and the worst of any English speaking city (worth noting whenever you heard Americans complaining about “LA or NY traffic”). I am pretty certain that until last year we ranked in the 20-25 range (e.g. before wfh over covid, which many places are now scaling back on).

    https://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/traffic-index/ranking/

    Its a somewhat comical suggestion in itself in terms of coming from actual government as opposed ‘neighbourly advise’, but it’s made so much worse when compounded by yet another problem of poor investment in public transport for such a long period of time and a point-blank refusal to build upwards which would alleviate so, so much of this and the housing crisis in on fell swoop.