Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

My question relates to energy policy and production.

Are we on target for a reduction of carbon emissions in that territory? What is the situation on the renewables? Who is keeping an eye on that? It seems to me that there is huge political resistance to things like wind power in certain communities. The question that is worrying me at the moment is that, considering Brexit, is Ireland going to have the same interconnectivity with the United Kingdom? Are we going to have to be more self-sufficient and more of an island in these matters? How does that feed into the issue of the many renewables such as wind power that have to be backed up by more dependable or non-variable energy sources? The one thing in the back of my mind is that, with interconnection to the UK, we have access to its atomic energy. I presume nobody is talking about developing atomic energy in Ireland. Therefore, how do we become carbon-free in our energy production commensurate with what we are planning in terms of economic growth and all the rest of it? Is somebody putting all of that together into some kind of big matrix?