Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I support Senator McDowell's amendments due to a number of practical operational considerations. A point which has not yet been made is that we could damage the perception of our country with regard to inward investment by multinational companies, which could be apprehensive about a country with a precarious energy future and disputation about it. It is worthy of mention that there are currently 250 jobs in this sector, with 500 other people indirectly employed. While we all pray for and aspire to achieve our commitments on our carbon footprint and work together to do so, assuming we meet all international targets by 2050 and get the job done, which we are not currently doing and the Minister's response and a new programme will be necessary, it is projected that we will still need fossil fuels for between 21% and 56% of our energy needs and will still be working to reduce them. We then become open to importing through Scotland or in a post-Brexit situation, through Russia, which is also precarious, as is the Middle East. We are putting our energy sovereignty and security at grave risk and making it subject to political currents abroad. We cannot afford to do that.

There is a well-made point that imported oil and gas comes with a greater carbon footprint. These fuels will come from countries with a much less sound environmental policy, which means we would increase the carbon footprint. The real issue is the worldwide universal carbon footprint and our contribution to that. We are not some isolated part of that jigsaw. There is a crucial issue of price. If we import our energy and do not have a domestic supply and control, we will be subject to international pricing and cartels. That can have terrible implications for the consumer and the broader economy. That issue has to be considered. We could, in a very malign scenario in which political and economic events took a certain turn as a result of policies pursued outside the country over which we have no control, ultimately have power cuts. Those power cuts could have significant implications.

It is not that we have a difficulty with the principle involved here. We are all committed to getting climate change right. There is a universal issue which the Minister will address in a report shortly. We have to do that collectively and we are committed to it. Is this a useful tactic or instrument? It is clearly not when one thinks of our economy, energy security and environmental considerations because we will have no control over matters outside of the country.