Michael Mulcahy (Dublin South Central, Fianna Fail)

It is high time we introduced legislation to ensure that all regulators appear regularly before committees of the Dáil and are fully accountable to the House for the way in which they regulate their industries. That would be a non-partisan approach to the issue. In general I welcome the fact that the Minister will be able to give policy direction to the energy regulator.

I also welcome section 8 which deals with emergency measures in the event of a sudden crisis. That is necessary. Ireland and the world face an energy crisis which may not have hit us yet. It is a little like the tsunami which starts in the middle of the ocean and takes some time to travel to shore. The energy crisis is complex and multifaceted and the only question we as legislators must ask, in an open and honest way, is whether we are doing enough to prepare for it. I do not believe that we as a society are doing enough to meet that incoming crisis.

The last large energy crisis was the oil crisis of 1973 which sent shock waves throughout the industrialised world. As we can see, it was a wholly unnecessary crisis in that at the time, there was no real shortfall in energy supply, but there was a decision, effectively by the oil cartel which still exists today, to increase the price of the oil supply radically. That could happen again and we should all pay tribute to OPEC for thus far, certainly in recent years, having responsibly increased supply where there was a threat of a spike in prices. Many of those countries have, to their detriment, increased supply, because they could have made a great deal of profit from increasing the price of oil but did not.

I think the Minister of State will accept there are two sides to the energy crisis coin. There is the question of supply and the question of consumption. With regard to competition, I will refer back to Deputy Coveney's contribution. I pay tribute to the Government for opening up competition in recent years. It is not true to say there has been a failure in this regard. I did not hear Deputy Coveney referring to all the new independent power plants built in Mulhuddart, Galway and Shannon. Companies such as Viridian have entered the market. We must accept there has been progress in that regard.

There has not been enough progress in the adoption of new technologies. We have not provided enough encouragement to the wind energy sector, for example. A few months ago I spoke to people involved in the wind energy industry and they were complaining about lack of encouragement for the sector. I appeal to the Minister of State to do everything he can to radically encourage a dramatic increase in supply from the wind energy sector. That may entail Government subsidy, and even though I believe completely in the market, when one is trying to encourage an industry there is a time for subsidy. We need more radical proposals before this House to encourage the wind energy, solar, ethanol and biofuel sectors.

I pay tribute to the Government and I criticise the contribution by Deputy Coveney who failed to refer to the positive moves the Minister for Finance has made in recent years.

See this speech in context