Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta McGrath as a chuid ama a roinnt.

The National Oil Reserves Agency Bill is technical in nature and falls far short of what is needed if this country is to face up to the major challenges in the area of energy. Thanks to the Government, Ireland, per capita, is the seventh most oil dependent country in the world. In the period 1989 to 2001, we doubled our oil use. Oil accounts for 60% of our energy imports, while the EU average is 43%. We are very exposed in terms of energy in this country. We are now importing 9 million tonnes of oil and that figure is increasing by an average of 3% per year. By 2008, we will be importing approximately 12 million tonnes of oil. This is an unsustainable situation and no amount of oil reserves will deal with it. However, the Government has yet to face up to this fact.

We are continuing to build to a very low standard when it comes to energy insulation. Oil-fired central heating is essentially heating the atmosphere in many houses because they are so badly insulated. We rank 23rd out of 24 countries in the OECD in terms of poor energy efficiency.

It is in this context that I wish to offer a few useful suggestions to the Government regarding oil. The debate regarding oil does not relate to simply burning it. Oil is a product that can be turned into many useful things. Over 4,000 products are listed as being derivatives of oil, including aspirin, DVDs, perfume, contact lenses and so forth. To use oil only in the context of burning is to waste a valuable resource. The University of Limerick has carried out extensive research into biomass and developing many of the by-products of oil from cellulose. The Government must pay close attention to the researchers who are proposing that much of our energy needs as well as the raw material needs for the pharmaceutical industry could be met by more indigenous production than is currently the case.

Ireland is in very serious jeopardy in terms of amber alerts and blackouts. In 2005 there were 57 amber alerts in this country. There has been much focus on the Corrib gasfield in recent times. The way people have been treated in that area is a terrible indictment of the Government and the manner in which it has favoured the corporate interests of a few over the welfare of the wider community. However, the Corrib gasfield will not solve our energy problems. During the next 15 to 20 years between 50% and 70% of our gas may come from the Corrib field but we will still be obliged to pay for it at the same price as gas from Siberia and other places. The gas will be sold privately and we will be obliged to buy it on the open market and will not be able to argue about the price. It is not a solution and the gas in the field will be badly needed in future when it becomes even more critical that we have some locally available energy source in order to build our renewable energy technologies and get on the road to being far more self-reliant.

Oil, however, is a slippery subject. It is the focus of much public relations activity and spin to the effect that there is no problem, that the price is going down and that people should not become too concerned about it because everything will be fine. We know this is not true and the Government needs to be very careful in distinguishing between the spin in the interest of the market and geopolitical, geological and environmental realities based on science. This is exactly what needs to be made known in a very coherent and straightforward way.

The geopolitical realities are always present. The Iraq war was a clear demonstration of how spin can overtake reality. Secretary Rumsfeld says the Iraq war has nothing to do with oil, yet, before the invasion of Iraq and 18 months before the events of 11 September 2001, the oilfields in Iraq were studied by the White House energy task force. Halliburton obtained a contract to carry out repairs and the first thing that was protected during the invasion was the Iraqi oil ministry. There is very clear evidence that it is a resource war. My perception is that the Government has decided that it is far too difficult to change the habits of its short lifetime and that it will, therefore, tag itself onto the coat-tails of the victor in whatever resource war takes place. This is not only illogical, it is also unethical.

This State is not using its natural resources and I ask that the Government reconsider the potential in Ireland for moving away from oil as a critical part of our lives and economy. It is not only the case that oil will not be available in the future but also that if we continue to burn the stuff, we will be accelerating a very serious inequality in that 20% of the world's population are burning 60% of the energy resources. If we continue to burn it, China and India will want to do so. Countries much larger than Ireland will tip the balance in respect of climate change. If the Minister has not seen "An Inconvenient Truth", the film Al Gore, the former Vice President of the United States, was involved in making, it is very important that he do so. I ask that watching it be on his and his colleagues' agenda.

Ireland is the fifth largest emitter of greenhouses gases per capita. The earth is warmer now than it has been during the past 11,000 years. We are fast approaching what is called the feedback effect, in which methane will be released from the permafrost in the Arctic, Antarctic, tundra areas of Siberia, Norway and other such places when it melts. The release of methane will be similar to that at the onslaught of the last Ice Age. This could possibly happen within a decade. What will the Minister of State say to his children and the citizens of the country if this is not taken seriously? Other countries are showing us what to do — it is not a matter of reinventing the wheel. Sweden has clearly stated that it will move beyond oil, oil reserves and what we are talking about in this Bill by 2020. The authorities in Iceland are talking about a hydrogen economy. This will not be easy but they see the need for it because they do not see any other option. This Government, rather than trying to build more capacity to store somebody else's oil, should recognise that the days of oil are fast coming to an end.

We need to put in place a strategy. The Government promised that it would publish an energy policy in July. However, July and August came and went. September is nearly gone and it is talking about publishing the policy, perhaps on Sunday. Does this sound like an urgent approach to a critical issue, bearing in mind that people face the danger of blackouts this winter? I ask that the Minister take this matter more seriously than any other facing this country. Every hospital, school, commuter and householder who needs to heat his or her home depends on the Minister doing so. There is no issue more critical to this country than that of taking the energy crisis seriously. It will not be taken seriously just by building more capacity for oil.

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