Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for the presentation. At the heart of this are the risks Professor McMullin points out we are facing. It is true, as he says, that globally we do not need more fossil fuel infrastructure or storage, but the lesson of Russia and Ukraine is that the existing availability of such infrastructure can be massively disrupted. On a path to net zero, what are the best options open to us? Professor McMullin says further investment in LNG will be a distraction for Europe but there has been a lot of it in recent months and it seems to have stabilised a difficult supply situation. I wonder if that is a fair assessment. Europe has to be conscious of access to storage and LNG seems to me to have provided a buffer allowing this crisis to be managed. It should not distract us, as the Professor says, from the wider challenge. Is he saying we should not worry about storage at all, or that we should look at Kinsale? Is that a viable option for security of supply? Where should we look to shore up our lack of access? We only have two access points to the UK, but Corrib will fade out. In a security of supply context, what are our best options?

Professor McMullin seems to say there are other things we should be doing. I do not think anyone disagrees with doing all of those other things. What are our best options just from the scenario of security of supply issue, not seeing the lights go off?