Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

It was very interesting and distracted me for five or ten minutes. There is a similar challenge for Fine Gael to participate in an all-party approach to developing energy policies in the future. We will all have our politics when it comes to certain things and there will always be occasions when party politics dominate, which I am sure will be the case over the next 230 days or so until the general election. However, on a quiet night in the Chamber such as this, we should understand there will be challenges on which we can all work together and energy policy is one of them. This issue is of great concern to everybody — people in business trying to create jobs, people trying to keep their homes warm and people looking after the elderly and disadvantaged. There are also challenges for our schools and public buildings. I have not felt cold in the Dáil since I arrived four years ago. I do not know whom to tell but maybe a little bit of energy could be conserved in the House as well.

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