Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The mechanisms we are putting in place are starting to work. This year was a record year for connections of new renewable power, and that will have to increase each year. As I said, this is not just on the electricity side but at home too. We are also on target this year to deliver the upgrades to our homes to make them energy-efficient. That is part of the integrated system to which I referred. It is not just one single old-fashioned, monolithic company being responsible for this; everyone is involved. There are the 27,000 homes being upgraded this year, the thousands of households starting to put solar panels on their roofs and the thousands of homes putting in heat pumps. That will not all be done in some old-fashioned way whereby we wait for the ESB to tell us what we can and cannot do. That never worked in an effective, quick way. Yes, the ESB is a brilliant company with a fantastic history, and I see it thriving, growing and expanding, but it cannot do this on its own. There is no way possible it could deliver it.

Why would we miss out on the innovation that may come from a variety of companies, including Irish companies? I am talking about companies like Munster Joinery in Ballydesmond, Sliabh Luachra, where real experts are now building new high-efficiency windows, and companies like Glen Dimplex that make heat pumps and have real capability. Are we to say to them, "Sorry, lads, but you are out and the ESB will do it all now"? I am talking about companies like Kingspan, one of the world's leading insulation companies. We have real capability in this area. To say that we cannot have a private sector and that everything has to be nationalised, to my mind, would kill the change we need and would not give us security. It would put prices up and would not help us deliver what is an opportunity for our people. What we have in this country is a significant resource in renewables which we convert to power and use in our industry in a variety of ways. We should stop demonising industry because some of those industries provide the jobs and the tax income that allow us to deliver the education, social welfare, health and other mechanisms our people need in a modern, thriving, functioning economy.

The Deputies' motion would not work. It would kill not just the energy system and the climate targets but also all the income streams needed for social protection. I believe in a mixed economy whereby both the private sector-----

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