Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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A premium is being paid to gas plants just to be available. There is a premium paid to gas plants for the generation they carry out because of the costs associated with maintaining dated and old plants. I am conscious of our gas supplies being depleted in relation to our natural resource. There is licensing available presently for exploration. There is some fear. For example, there is a field near the Corrib which could yield more resources but there is fear that because of Government policy it will not get ashore; yet we continue to purchase gas from the UK and elsewhere and the costs associated with that are causing the arrears Mr. Gannon mentioned. On our doorstep we have part of the solution, which we may well ignore.