Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Once again, we are back in this Chamber dealing with some of the many crises at this time. We are talking about energy and we can break that subject into two parts. There is the issue of our capacity difficulties, where we are facing the possibility that we do not have the capacity to deliver and that we could be looking at blackouts. That tells us one thing about our lack of preparations in that respect, and that is not okay in any way, shape or form. This Government often speaks of its proficiency in business and being able to deliver jobs and industry, yet here is a major failing. Anybody who ever did junior certificate geography will know of the requirement to ensure there is a safe, steady energy supply, and that is not guaranteed in 2022 and going into 2023.

We are dealing with an energy crisis, and this is down to a number of reasons. While we cannot take away from the criminal invasion by Russia of Ukraine, beyond that, there is the difficulty we have when dealing with the energy sector on an international basis, which is that there are a hell of a lot of players who make a hell of a lot of money and they are just happy to keep making that money.

Large sections of the powers that be were not willing to tackle that system in any way, shape or form. The Government, the European Commission and the European Union were slow to get to the point even where they are now, where at least the correct conversation is happening as regards windfall taxes, caps and all the other parts that are necessary to ensure there will be a steady supply, insofar as possible, of energy and that it will be at an affordable price, but we are a long way from delivering on that.

Many of my party colleagues have spoken about the issues in this State, whether relating to energy providers or Government supports to ensure we have protected those who are most vulnerable both to being cut off and to economic carnage. If that economic carnage were to rip through the entire economy and society, the impact would be huge on people's lives, jobs would be lost across the board and we would face into a desperate scenario. As I said, there is a great onus on the entire western world, the European Union and the Government to get their act together to ensure we will protect those who are most vulnerable, as well as the economy and society. It is in their own interest. There is no choice but to deliver on this.

We all know we are behind where we need to be, whether in regard to green hydrogen or our possible big wins in regard to big winds. In that respect, we are talking about offshore wind capacity but we need ports that are fit for purpose, the planning infrastructure and everything that is required in that respect. That is an absolute necessity.

Deputy Buckley spoke about geothermal energy. I am going to raise an issue I have never raised previously and which will come as a complete shock to the Minister of State. I refer to communal heating systems and, specifically, Carlinn Hall. Recently, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, commenced a geothermal feasibility study. I am currently examining updates on that and I believe it is somewhat positive. We all know the difficulties of people paying huge bills in gas-fed communal systems with significant inefficiencies and high costs, not to mention how environmentally disastrous they are. The SEAI needs to put in place a grant scheme in order that we can provide these solutions for people. Moreover, we need to mitigate the pain people are going to go through this winter, with some of them paying between 42 cent and 47 cent per kilowatt hour, which is crazy stuff. Significant actions have to be taken in the long term but short-term mitigations are absolutely necessary.

See this speech in context