Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

What has gone wrong in this country is that we put the cart before the horse. We decided to get rid of energy producing methods that we had such as the power stations in the midlands before we had an alternative in place. What we are finding now is that we have been preaching about how to heat our homes and do all the things that are green, which comes from all sides of the House, without looking to see where the energy was going to be produced from under the green methods. When considering Derrybrien, which is not functional because of a planning mess, one might ask: what are we at at all?

In my constituency, there are people who built their houses and got their mortgages and were told not to put in a chimney and that they must put in an air-to-water heat pump. Now they are getting bills for up to €1,200 for these air-to-water systems they are putting in. The €200 electric credit that the Government is giving to them pales into insignificance when that is going on.

I was told yesterday that the SEAI has told builder providers that they can no longer sell back boilers or solid fuel stoves because they are not what we should be doing.

We are forcing people to put in heating that is all dependent on electricity. It is causing huge concerns for people. If people with electric vehicles have to charge their car at a public charging point, it costs double what it cost this time last year.

We are bringing people on a journey without knowing how we will reach the end. We do not have the resources in place. From the SEAI point of view for the warmer homes schemes, people are told there is a delay and they have to wait up to a year for somebody to come out to do a bit of work. In the meantime, they have draughts in their house. They go to the local council to get draughty windows replaced but do not get replacement costs if they are double-glazed already. The council will only deal with single-glaze windows.

We have many policies and reports to say everything will be fine. Regarding the farming situation, I was in Roscommon at a protest on Monday about the cost of producing our sheep and the lack of support from Government. Every night these farmers are out in their sheds with the lights on. They are looking at the lights and thinking about what the electricity will cost. They have to do that in what I would call the maternity ward for the next month to make sure the lambing season is carried out as efficiently and safely as possible. There is no regard for any of that when we talk abut policies and reports and everything we need to do. We have gone too far too quickly without realising there is a transition period of up to 20 years before our houses are warmer and we have a proper supply of green energy in this country. It will take time.

We keep talking about the potential offshore, yet I do not see one pylon off the west or any place near it for the next ten years. Those are the problems we have. We need a dose of reality. Let us not put the cart before the horse. Let us make sure people are protected.

See this speech in context