Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for their presentations. I apologise for having to leave earlier but I had to speak in the Dáil on the establishment of the climate action committee. There is broad agreement now that we face a serious situation with regard to climate action and our use of fossil fuels. With a few notable exceptions in south Kerry and the White House, we are all on board in recognising that we have a problem, which is good. At this stage, it is about what to do. The debate around fossil fuels and their extraction is one we have to face head on. The approach of my party, which I have advocated, is that we have to change very quickly. The disappointing thing is that we have not been putting the renewable industries in place to deal with this. We have not been creating the new industries. When I say "we", I refer to the State, private industry and the various sectors of the economy. That is where we need to move to. I have a question on alternatives to fossil fuel which the Department's representatives might like to answer. It is about alternatives to fossil fuel in other areas like fertilisers. Mr. Collins or one of his colleagues might address that.

Professor Sweeney highlighted that we may go into the 2030s with Corrib. We are at least looking at 12 to 15 years of gas. As such, we do not have security of supply there. Of fossil fuels, it is possibly the best option in terms of current use but we need to move away from all fossil fuels. Surely, our oversized agriculture sector and the problem we have with farm waste, food waste and other forms of waste are putting us in breach of EU regulations along with bad environmental practices. As such, should we not be moving quickly towards biogas and biomass?

Do we know what potential there is in any oil or gas reserves off our shores? Should we not recognise the potential of offshore wind? I accept it is intermittent but it could be married with biogas and other renewable sources such as wave, wind and solar.

I heard the outline of IBEC's position and I have read its submission. What concerns does IBEC have about being behind the curve in terms of not moving quickly enough into new industries, particularly with regard to stranded assets? In other words, in a short period of time assets that are invested in old, dirty industries may not have a great value. In fact, it might be hard to get people to invest in them as the smart investors see that the new game in town is renewables.

My last question is for Dr. Slevin. She said in her presentation that gas exploration companies are under no obligation to sell the gas back to the State and that it is sold at full market price. Obviously, there is the security of supply issue, which was highlighted by another speaker as well. The suggestion is that we have security of supply because we have private companies drilling, but the reality is that they can sell it to whoever they wish on the world market. How big an issue is that in terms of moving away from fossil fuels? How much of a drag is it in moving industry and policymakers away from fossil fuels?