Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As already stated, the implementation of the European directive on common rules for the internal markets in renewable and natural gases and hydrogen is a more appropriate legislative vehicle for consideration of the decarbonisation of the gas grid and GNI's role and functions as provided for in the Gas Act 1976, as amended. In particular, the final version of the European gas directive provides for member states to implement measures to phase out natural gas in order to reach the climate-neutrality objectives set out by the EU or for other technical reasons. In other words, over the last couple of years, European countries have together negotiated this gas package and directive, which specifies how we can phase fossil fuel gas out of the gas network, how we can integrate biomethane, hydrogen and other gases into the gas network, how we can decide who should get a connection and who should not, how we can reach our European Fit for 55 objectives in reducing emissions and how we can decommission our gas. As the Senator said, that is also going to be a requirement. Therefore, given that the proposed amendment is outside of the scope of the Bill as agreed by the Government and given that legislation to cover exactly these areas is coming, I propose to reject these amendments, while acknowledging GNI's current obligations under current and pending legislation.