Mr. Conor Minogue:

I thank the joint committee for its invitation. I am here with Dr. Neil Walker. We are with the business group IBEC which is Ireland's largest business group. It represents 7,000 members across a range of sectors that make up 70% of the private sector workforce in Ireland. Its member companies are big, small, indigenous and international. The one thing they all have in common is that they need access to a secure, affordable and sustainable energy supply. I understand a copy of our submission has been circulated. I will briefly talk through key concerns and why, in our view, this Bill will not have the intended environmental outcome. It would not reduce fossil fuel consumption and could instead undermine national energy security. We will be happy to take aquestions later.

A failure to address climate change and its main driver, increasing greenhouse gas emissions, will put the environment, our society and economic well-being at great risk. A failure to decarbonise the energy system will lead to a continued over-reliance on energy imports. For these reasons, IBEC fully supports the delivery of a low-carbon economy by 2050 and the transformation of the energy system. In practice, this will mean a complete change in how we run businesses, how we get from A to B, how we heat our homes and factories and how we power the electricity system. How we meet this objective with a growing economy and increasing population while also addressing concerns about energy security and affordability will be one of the biggest challenges of our time. The Bill would be disruptive and affect all sectors and communities. It is incumbent on us as a society to follow the most cost-effective route towards decarbonisation and prioritise evidence-based policy.

In Ireland we have access to world class energy and climate modelling in University College Cork which could give us an insight into how our future energy needs can be met within an increasingly constrained carbon budget, which is in keeping with the Paris Agreement and our obligations. It is imperative that we use this resource and evidence base when making policy decisions. I refer to the graphs on page 3 of our submission. One can clearly see that in the modelling done to date, there is a role for natural gas in the transition and in a 2050 scenario. Our key concern is that the Bill overlooks the important role natural gas plays today in the transition and the 2050 timeline. It is used by over 800,000 households and businesses on the island of Ireland. It is the primary fuel for electricity generation and also recognised as a transition fuel, both by the European Commission and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. That is because, while natural gas is a fossil fuel, it is the cleanest fossil fuel available.

It has application for the heat, transport and power generation sectors. Due to its negligible levels of nitrous oxide and particulate matter, is an obvious bridging fuel for the transport sector, particularly for freight and heavy goods vehicles that make up 20% of our emissions in the transport sector, on which we have made very little progress, and particularly for vehicles and transport modes where electrification is not an option.

In Ireland, natural gas plays an especially important role in electricity generation and ensuring that our electricity grid remains secure and safe. As an island nation located on the periphery of Europe with no nuclear power generation, the flexible generation that gas provides is needed to supplement and accommodate the growing level of renewables, and intermittent renewables like solar and wind power, that we are bringing onstream. At present there is no other obvious solution to this problem. EirGrid has acknowledged that fact in its planning framework entitled Tomorrow's Energy Scenarios 2017 and UCC has acknowledged the same in its modelling work.

We need to maintain secure supplies of natural gas. The existing Moffat interconnectors have been extremely reliable in giving us affordable natural gas. The Corrib gas field has also given us great respite in terms of our over-reliance on imports. However, when the Corrib field is exhausted and domestic sources cannot be used then we will have to rely on imports again. That is a growing concern especially when we will have to increasingly look further afield for imports from non-EU and non-OECD country, particularly in a worsening geopolitical climate.

As has been mentioned, the enactment of the Bill could lead to a net increase in global emissions because piped gas, which must travel long distances, and liquified natural gas have a higher carbon footprint than domestically produced gas.

In summation, the security of our energy system is not just a matter for big business but is a matter for everybody as it affects local hospitals, schools, cafés and libraries. We must all bear this in mind and I ask the committee members to bear this fact in mind when considering the Bill. Today, Ireland continues to have a worrying over-dependence on imported fossil fuels. The delivery of a low carbon economy will help us to address both climate change and our over-reliance on imports. During this transition the security of our natural gas supply still needs to be prioritised. That is why we recommend that the Bill is not progressed at this time. We ask the committee members to keep in mind the evidence and modelling that has been done when considering the Bill.