Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)

My party leader and Deputy Eamon Ryan have eloquently and cogently outlined the energy crisis and the lack of a meaningful response from the Government. I will focus on the issue of gas safety, which I have raised in this House before. I welcomed the statement on 3 February 2005 by the Minister of State, Deputy Killeen that the Energy (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill would deal with all of the safety issues. However, having studied the legislation, I see that this is not the case.

There are sections of the Bill which I welcome because they will go some way towards improving the situation with regard to gas safety from now on. Section 11, which proposes to insert the new sections 9F to 9K, inclusive, in the 1999 Act, provides for a fine of €5,000 for a person who is not a registered gas installer or, on conviction on indictment, a fine not exceeding €15,000 or a term of imprisonment not exceeding three years. I welcome this because it sends out the message that cowboys will not be tolerated.

I am concerned about the issue of the discharge of duties. Under the proposed new section 9K, the commission "may appoint persons to be gas safety officers" for various purposes. I hope the Minister will consider replacing "may" with "will" or "shall" because it is important that gas safety officers are appointed. We also need to know how many such officers will be appointed and the funding that will be provided to allow them to discharge their duties. Otherwise, the situation will be similar to that pertaining to the Department of Education and Science, where an Educational Welfare Board is in place but only a fraction of its staff are working on the ground, discharging the board's statutory remit. We must ensure that if rules, regulations and strict fines are in place, we have the required number of personnel to tackle the cowboy operators. There is no evidence in this Bill that this will be the case. Giving powers to commissions allows Ministers to pass the buck in terms of answering questions in the Dáil. If I ask the Minister a question in the future on gas safety, he will say it is a matter for the commission. As an elected representative, I have no way of influencing a commission so the legislation enacted must enable me and other Members of the Oireachtas to raise with the Minister issues relating to how operations on the ground are progressing.

I was thrown out of this House on a previous occasion when I raised the issue of gas safety. The proposed new section 9H states that "The Commission, having consulted with such persons as it considers appropriate, and with the consent of the Minister, may by regulations designate a class or classes of gas works to be designated gas works". Again, the word "may" should be replaced by "shall". I hope the commission and the Minister will make sure that a triple lock mechanism is put in place to ensure that any cowboys are dealt with from now on. However, I am more concerned about the cowboys who have been operating up to now. As I have argued before, and my comments during the adjournment debate on 2 March this year were accidentally misrepresented, the Government must order a nationwide audit of domestic gas installations from meter to house. This is necessary because a considerable number of gas installations do not conform to IS 813, which clearly states that the gas pipe must be properly insulated, both inside and outside the house. Such insulation has not happened and is still not happening. I have been informed that there are gas installation works currently under way in a housing development at City West where the proper insulation standards are not being met. Some operators may not be adhering to the standards through ignorance, but ignorance is no excuse.

When I raised this issue on 2 March, the response from the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment was that "the Minister has been advised by the Department's chief technical adviser and by Bord Gáis Éireann that as the pipeline contains gas, not a liquid, there is no requirement for thermal insulation on any pipe work from the meter to the House". That advice directly contravenes IS 813, which states that insulation from the meter to the house and within the house is required.

Most types of concrete will eventually corrode a gas pipe and nobody has ever denied that fact. Representatives of Bord Gáis Éireann said on TV 3 that this might only happen to a small number of pipes. No one, either inside or outside the House, has ever shown me scientific proof that concrete does not corrode the copper in gas pipes. There are tens of thousands of houses that are not properly insulated to IS 813. Some of the pipe work will eventually corrode. Some people will be lucky and that will not happen, but it is a lottery of life and death. Some of the pipes will corrode and when they do, the gas will escape and find the quickest way to the surface. If it is outside, the gas will travel under the concrete and may end up inside the house. If it is already in the house, it will build up to a certain quantity and if the oxygen content in the air is at the correct level, the gas will explode.

If the provisions in the current Bill are implemented properly, the Minister may stop the cowboys in the developments that are taking place right now, but what does he intend to do about the houses that have already been built, where the gas pipes are not insulated? I have called for a nationwide audit so that every householder knows what the situation is with regard to the gas installation in his or her house. Even if this was only done on the pipe work from the meter to the house, that would be a step in the right direction with regard to safety. Otherwise, perhaps in five years' time in an older house, someone will burn to death in an explosion caused by leaking gas. If the Minister does nothing, it will be his and the Government's responsibility because they are supposed to tell Bord Gáis to implement the regulations and, if there is a problem, to deal with it. It may try to hide it and the issue has not been covered by the media for whatever reason but scientific evidence shows that concrete corrodes gas pipes and that gas pipes are not installed with the proper insulation. I hope it is not the case that someone will die and that, instead, the Government will take cognisance of the threat to people.

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