Dr. Kyla Tienhaara:

I thank the Deputy for the questions. I applaud Ireland on going as far as ruling out offshore exploration for oil and gas and fracking onshore. That is much more than my country has done. However, I agree that building out infrastructure for importing gas is somewhat inconsistent with this approach, particularly if we look at the energy costs required to compress gas for transport as is the case with LNG. It seems very inconsistent. I also worry about the lock-in effect of that infrastructure. As I have noted, such infrastructure is built for a long period and this makes it harder to transition, particularly when we add in elements such as the ECT, which helps reinforce that kind of lock-in.

On the question of how to address demand and supply, there are interesting proposals from the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance. There is an academic and activist proposal for a fossil non-proliferation treaty. There are interesting efforts in this regard. I tend to agree that the state needs to lead and there are increasing calls for the energy sector to be nationalised and have more public companies providing energy. I bring this back to the threat that any time a company is nationalised or we take public control of any aspect of the private sector, and not just the energy sector, there is a risk of being sued under these investment treaties. As part of a broader plan to go that route, we also need to get rid of these treaties. I thank the Deputy again for the questions.