Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is not too bad at it. I do not welcome the British position on energy. However, while I think it is a terrible position, I welcome that it has pressed the pause button on what was happening here. By the Minister's own admission we are putting in place a new planning regime. The new regime will probably not be what I want but it will certainly represent an improvement on the current regime. That is to be welcomed. The Minister has also admitted that we do not have a policy. This is why he will be issuing a Green Paper on energy. Deputy Coffey tends to deal with issues in a narrow way and dismisses anything put forward by the Opposition but I am trying to be constructive. I welcome that the Minister is preparing a Green Paper but it indicates that we do not have our act together on the issue of energy and alternative energy. I accept these areas were not addressed during the boom years. We tend to wait until we have a crisis or are forced to act by the EU. We should have been working to develop sources of alternative energy instead of building houses during the boom years. Does the Minister agree that it was probably as well that events played out as they did because the public are now engaged in the process? Extreme views have been expressed on all sides but we will have a better planning regime. We will not know if it is good enough until we see it and my party would like it to be more regulation based. I look forward to engaging with the Minister on the development of energy policy.

The Minister was somewhat dismissive of wind power but I argue that it will be part of our alternative energy solution. In terms of sustainability - I speak as somebody with a background in environmental issues - even though wind is an intermittent source of power, six months ago there appeared to be a stampede to utilise wind and when we tried to generate a debate an other sources of energy we got the sort of response we received today from Deputy Coffey. We are not blessed with sunshine but we can produce a certain amount of solar energy. Other sources of energy, such as geothermal energy, are being developed continuously. I am not an engineer but I know that hydropower will play a small part in our overall energy policy because I take the time to inform myself on these matters. The Minister is correct that there is insufficient land on this island to grow a large volume of biomass but there is potential to develop willow crops. We need a more rounded approach and I hope the Green Paper will give us an opportunity to engage on the process of developing a sustainable alternative energy regime.

The Minister did not address my earlier question on fuel poverty. Reference was made to the Ballinderry co-operatives and greater acceptance. As a former employee of Bord na Móna, I recognise there is greater acceptance, for various reasons. Another way of persuading communities to accept new forms of energy is to create community gain in regard to fuel poverty. I accept that energy prices have decreased somewhat but people who one would think were comfortably off were freezing in their houses in recent winters. Does the Minister see a need to address the issue of chronic fuel poverty in tandem with developing alternative energy policy?