Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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As elective representatives on the Committee of Public Accounts, it would be remiss of us to not ask a question about the cost of temporary generation of electricity with these interim solutions that will be implemented. We are concerned about continuity of supply. I take on board Deputy Catherine Murphy’s point that this is an issue for energy committee. Perhaps we should forward this correspondence to the Joint Committee on the Environment, Climate and Communications. We should bring the information to the attention of that sectoral committee. We should express our concerns to it, because the Oireachtas, as a whole, will have to take a more hands-on approach to this issue. We have closed down a lot of things very quickly. Some of us said this at that committee. Deputy Catherine Murphy was at the committee as well as me and she will recall me raising this issue three years ago. If we close down the peat-burning stations and other sources, we will need other sources in place. Wind and solar do not provide dispatchable power on the cold nights when the wind is not blowing and the sun is not shining.

That is the reality. The Deputy heard me saying this in this room before.