Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

So many things have been said, and once a situation gets increasingly polarised, it gets worse. I remember suggesting to people earlier in this debate that going to prison was not going to solve any problem. It exaggerates the difficulties and it creates more grievance.

I have been in a prison myself, so I know that. I have no wish to go back there, but it is no harm to have had the experience. One learns a certain amount. Everybody will say when outside and before a person goes to prison that a noble thing is being done and that people are behind that person, but when the door locks for the second time, and the double lock is clicked, the person will know he or she is alone for the first time. An anger and grievance will flow from that which was not there before. This situation is now complicated.

We have had the compromise of the alternative route. Questions have been raised, and there is an alteration to the environmental impact statement. There would have to be an alteration to the EIS if there was an alteration to the route. That is simple.

Whatever else goes with it, we must try to recognise that the resource is there. It is not in the same abundance as in Norway, for example, where there are huge resources of oil and gas reserves. That country also has significant resources of coal. It has many times the known reserves of coal under the sea. We are not necessarily comparing like with like. Norway is sitting atop that goldmine and it can afford to talk tough.

There are differences, and there is no sense in stating there are none. We should eliminate the ideological arguments, such as those relating to tax take. That will be dealt with further along this debate, as it should be. I have suggested that many times in the House.

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