Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

Or the Deputy himself.

There is an absolute necessity to deliver supply, since if it is not delivered, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. I ask the Minister to comment on the development of alternatives as far as the board is concerned. Will this provision be sufficient and adequate to ensure that development and have the targets been set? The Minister will probably refer to his recently produced discussion document on the area. I am not convinced that sufficient emphasis was placed on Bord na Móna's ability to get involved far more as an energy-producing company.

We hear this all the time. In the 1980s, international energy prices went up very quickly, with peat increasing from IR£16 per tonne to approximately IR£60. If we proceed in the way it appears we are going with regard to energy prices, we will face large-scale job losses of a kind yet unheard of. We are codding ourselves with the notion we can replace all these manufacturing jobs with highfalutin, high-tech jobs using existing expertise. Let us not forget the lesson of the late 1970s and early 1980s when we priced ourselves out of the market and people left the country because they could no longer afford to live in it. Judging by the indications coming from the manufacturing and services sectors, it appears we are proceeding in the same manner and are heading down the same road. I mention this as a warning. The Minister knows it is true as he was around then and saw what happened. He did not have as much experience then as now, but that is to the good. The sequence of events that took place from 1977 until 1981 was the same as is happening now. If we allow energy prices rise to the same extent now and pretend there will be no ill consequences, we will be codding ourselves.

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