Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I am delighted to get the opportunity to speak on this very important motion that we in Fine Gael have tabled. I have watched this topic being kicked around, so to speak, by many Governments but, in more recent times and especially in the past nine or ten years, by the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats Government. It is very difficult to understand why any Government in the past six to eight years would have stood aside and simply depended on other places throughout the world producing the sort of energy that we need to keep the wheels turning in this country.

There are a few important matters that I want to discuss. Even the dogs in the street know that the price of a barrel of oil has risen to $70 and appears to be continuing to increase. All the experts tell us that it is very unlikely to fall below $70. Many professionals in the field, especially the biofuels field, tell me that it has got to a stage, when energy costs of petrol and diesel are at $70 a barrel, when all the projects that up to now would have been non-commercial kick in. We know down through the years what the problem was with all sorts of sustainable energy that were within our grasp, whether they were wind or solar energy or anything else, when we could get a plentiful supply of oil and diesel at a rate that we were used to paying. We thought the prices of those fuels were expensive at that time but they were not compared to current prices. A few brave warriors invested in organic energy but some of them were badly burned over the years. They had the right idea but were operating in the wrong environment.

Irrespective of what Government is in power, we have become accustomed to the availability of fuel supplies. We experienced fuel shortages on only two occasions and I remember the mayhem that ensued many years ago, but matters always seemed to come right. It is a psychological thought in the back of the mind of most people and that of the Government that this hurdle will always be overcome. There is a perception that diesel and oil will flow through the oil fields of the world, and in respect of fields to which we do not have access, that more oil fields will be found. However, science in this area proves conclusively this will not happen. Strategists and forecasters throughout the world inform us through programmes on television night, noon and morning that in the next five or six years the supplies of oil producing nations will reach their maximum level and subsequently oil production will level out or decrease.

To put that scenario into context in terms of Ireland, a small country and only a dot on the map, we have a population of 4 million and are advised it will increase to 5 million in 15 years' time. We are also advised there will be double the number of cars on our roads in 15 or 16 years' time. If the size of this economy was multiplied 5,000 fold, one could imagine the impact on oil supplies. We can imagine the impact on oil supplies of the growth of economies of the size of America, Germany, France, Italy, India and China. Against that background, it is past time that all governments examined the possibilities of using sustainable energies from their own resources. They need to examine the harnessing of energy from the air, sea and land.

Minor progress was made in the development of wind energy, which was a buzz word a few years ago. However, for a variety of reasons, not least the problems encountered by the ESB in incorporating wind energy into the grid in which many farmers have been involved over the years, we have reached a point where the Government must give clear direction and objectives to the various factions involved in the sector. No one energy resource will solve the energy question and addressing it will require a multiplicity of approaches.

I am against proceeding along the nuclear energy route, as is every Member on this side of the House. Given our size and location, placed as we are on the edge of Europe, I cannot understand why we would go down that route, given that we do not know where it would lead and in light of the shadow of Chernobyl.

The development of our renewable energy sector presents a major opportunity to restore pride among members of the farming community. Irish agriculture is on its knees because the products farmers were trained to and wanted to produce are no longer required in the way they used to be. In terms of our 12 million acres of productive land, we could manage, as the European Union wants us to do, with 7 million or 8 million acres of productive land. Therefore, 4 million or 5 million acres of land could be used for the production of biofuels and various other sustainable crops. I see no reason a crop of willow could not grow alongside a crop of potatoes, carrots or parsnips.

The only way the production of such biofuel crops will be a success, and the Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey, knows this more than most of his colleagues in Cabinet, and for this piece of the jigsaw to fit is for farmers to make a profit from growing such crops. Such an enterprise can be dressed up and the question of national pride, environmental protection and meeting commitments under the Kyoto Protocol can be raised, but the need for it to yield a profit is essential. Such an enterprise is no different from the exploration of oil wells throughout the world. Oil finds made millionaires out of property owners and they sprouted up like mushrooms in May because there was money to be made in the oil industry. The only way such an enterprise will work in the context of agriculture is if farmers engaged in it, who would have to be retrained in the growing of such crops, are able to process the crops, trust there will be contracts for their produce, and that it would yield a profit similar to the profit earned from dairying and beef production in the past.

The advice of scientists in the Agricultural Institute was the bible for Irish farmers 20 or 30 years ago. A similar structure will have to be put in place to co-ordinate research and development, involving a body of scientists and the development of a scientific approach to the development of the renewable energy sector. The putting in place of such a structure will cost money. Every person must understand there is a cost involved in developing such projects for the future stability and prosperity of the country. It is vital that such an institute is established where potential mistakes in the development of such projects can be detected to ensure farmers will not make them. That same principle applies to industry but I am speaking about the farming community.

We have the land for the development of such projects. Many young people wish to make a living from farming. If the price of a barrel of oil at $70 has increased to a level that it will be expensive to use and alternative energy crops can be produced at that cost or slightly higher, we need to establish an institute to collect and analyse information and science in this area from throughout the world and detect mistakes associated with such production. All such institutes make or detect mistakes in the process from an experimental viewpoint — that is the reason they exist. However, almost none of that analysis is taking place here and it is time we engaged in it.

The production of alternative crops was a buzz term among the farming community. Some farmers decided to rear deer and rabbits and even some went into the worm business. That was a fanciful journey for a few farmers who went out of business over night as soon as the commercial reality kicked in. The enterprises I am dealing with are far removed from raising deer or rabbits. Such enterprises will prove to be sustainable for farmers, but many steps need to be taken that they are unable, or could not be expected, to take. It comes down to the question of research and development. Potential mistakes need to be made and farmers need to be shown what can be done. I have not the slightest doubt that the development of such enterprises will not solve all our problems but it will do two things at the one time. It will ensure hybrid production on our farms. Farms will be reinvigorated in every townland in the country because there will be a market for their produce. There will be no such thing as willow mountains. I expect that every crop produced here will be consumed here. It will replace costly imported fuels and reduce our dependence on influences outside our control. Any Government should take note of that. I welcome the bit of a journey the Government took in this respect at the last budget, but it was far from being the real thing. I hope the Government intends to build on it. If and when Fine Gael gets into Government, this will be the subject of one of its big future investment programmes. Whoever is standing behind the Government desks in ten years' time will encounter much more trouble in respect of this issue than is the case at present.

See this speech in context