LED there be light
Tipperary Co Council has upgraded almost 10,000 public lights to energy efficient LED standard.
The council has responsibility for the management and maintenance of over 19,000 lights across the county, on all roads with the exception of the motorway network. Of these, 1,670 are Transport Infrastructure Ireland street lights maintained by the council.
Public lighting is the single biggest user of energy in the overall council’s energy usage. Approximately 6,820,000 kWh of energy was used in 2024, but this was down from 7,484,000 kWh in 2020.
Over the past number of years, the council has introduced light-emitting diode (LED) lighting in a number of new and replacement public lighting projects. Over 9,850 lights have been upgraded to LED, and the council’s continuing participation in the Public Lighting Energy Efficiency Project (PLEEP) will see the remaining 9,000 or so street lights upgraded.
The council’s 2026 budget meeting was informed that a survey of all street lights in the county has been completed.
COUNCILLORS DISSATISFIED
But several councillors at the meeting expressed dissatisfaction with the level of service provided by the council’s lighting contactor. Cllr Louise Morgan Walsh said there were 52 lights out in Nenagh and people were waiting a very long time for them to be fixed. The council should prevent such problems from arising, especially when ratepayers are being asked to pay more in 2026, Cllr Morgan Walsh said.
Cllr Kieran Bourke also questioned the council’s level of satisfaction with the service providers, saying councillors seemed to be reporting the same lights out all of the time.
“Everyone has the same complaints,” Cllr David Dunne observed. The council is committing “massive” taxpayer-funded expenditure into public lighting and “there has to be consequences” if the contractor cannot meet their obligations. “Call him in or get another one,” Cllr Dunne said.
Director of Services Liam Brett said the council is using two contractors, one for maintenance and one for the PLEEP. Some 55 percent of Tipperary’s public lighting has been upgraded to LED, while only around 1.5 percent of lights are not working compared to a figure of 3 percent in 2024, Mr Brett said.
Nevertheless, he understood the councillors’ frustrations and said the authority would have to tackle those individual lights that have not been working for a long time.
Director of Finance Mark Connolly said a “huge amount is going on” with regard to public lighting in Tipperary. The new lights are helping the council to save a lot of money on energy.