Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the meeting. On my way here this morning I saw that he was in the company of Wolfe Tone on the corner of St. Stephen's Green. I do not know which leadership or whatever he was following but I wish him the best of luck in that regard.

I welcome the Green Paper. The Minister is open to discussion, as always. Will someone tell me the number of different ways there are to generate electricity? As he will know, three of the Minister's party colleagues are vociferous opponents of wind generation. He knows who they are.

The different methods to generate energy are wind, tidal, offshore, biomass, solar, turf and LNG. Scientists present such methods, particularly wind, as being free but they are not. It would be valuable to the discussion if the Minister included the numbers in his White Paper.

Electric cars are technically feasible. One estimate has declared that an electric car requires a subsidy the equivalent of what a normal car contributes to the Exchequer. I say to the Minister for Finance - to whom I wish a speedy recovery - that one can do everything, technically, yet it may not make economic sense.

As the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources pointed out on page 17, the energy cost for households has increased by 29% between 2007 and the publication of the Green Paper, and also industrial energy costs have increased by 31%. That finding should ensure that energy is assessed by price alone and is also used more efficiently, including the incentive programmes that he mentioned.

CER successfully made the case for the stranded asset theory in the High Court, as the Minister said, but I do not know what the economic implications will be. Railways left canals as stranded assets and then roads left the railways as stranded assets. If I opened a new airport in one part of England and two industries compete against each other then one will become a stranded asset. I do not know if it is a stand I would like to hang my hat on unduly. Progress and the changes in pricing, mentioned by the Minister, seem to indicate that it would be cheaper to bring gas into Ballylongford. If that means a pipeline then it should be treated like an old piece of canal, a disused airport or whatever. There is no need to disrupt resource allocation in the rest of the economy because relative prices have changed. We might have to add coal to the picture as well. As I gather, fracking has been deemed a success because it has led to a dramatic fall in coal and gas prices, a fact that may improve the economics of Moneypoint.

I look forward to the White Paper and thank the Minister for attending. I hope that a debate can take place after he supplies the numbers that I have asked for.