Peter Kelly (Longford-Roscommon, Fianna Fail)

I do not believe for one moment that it is legitimate to accuse the Minister of hiding behind the regulator when what the Minister is doing is respecting the independence of the regulator. The Opposition is trying to have it both ways. Much damage can be done by this type of talk as was done with the rip-off Ireland campaign. It is simply not on to say that Ireland is an expensive country without also recognising the huge increase in earnings that has occurred. It is wrong to pretend that one can easily combine high earnings with low prices.

People spoke of the decline of manufacturing. Manufacturing is associated with lower costs and lower wage economies of which Ireland used to be one. Are people really suggesting that Ireland should reverse its transition to an advanced economy? If we were still a manufacturing economy the impact of energy price increases during the past three years would have been greater.

A second substantial structural change in the economy has taken place in recent years. This has involved a greater relative importance of services which are less energy intensive and a decline in the relative importance of traditional manufacturing sectors which are more energy intensive. This has reduced our dependence on oil. For example, oil imports in the late 1970s amounted to approximately 6.5% of GDP — the equivalent figure in 2004 was approximately 1.25%. Nonetheless it is important to develop new sources of energy. I congratulate the Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey, on the new Green Paper on energy. On 1 October 2000 the Government launched a Green Paper entitled Towards a Sustainable Energy Future for Ireland, setting out policy proposals up to 2020. It sets ambitious targets for boosting Ireland's renewable energy. It calls for 30% of electricity consumed to come from renewable sources by 2020. This is an ambitious goal but one that can be reached.

During the past two years we have doubled the electricity produced from renewable sources and we are on track to have 15% of electricity consumed coming from renewable sources. The three pillars of our energy policy must be security, sustainability and competitiveness, all of which the Minister is doing his utmost to ensure.

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