Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

It is confidence in my position that encourages me to have a debate and to recognise the need for a debate. This is a technical area that is very complex, with many variables in it. However, looking at the technical and energy reasons makes my case all the stronger. My case is that we should be moving towards energy efficiency and renewables as the key twin tracks of our energy policy in the future. I do not believe nuclear power will have a role in that. Such is the conviction of my position that I would prefer to have that debate on alternative sources to show what I believe is the right way to go. It is important to have it because in the absence of such a debate, there are people out there who might not have knowledge of the area. They might have a thought in the back of their mind that there is this magic solution, but we are not debating it because it is not politically correct to do so. They might think that if only we were not so blind, we could turn to it and all our problems would be solved.

A debate will show that nuclear power is not a solution and does not provide easy answers. It is incredibly expensive and takes a huge amount of time, and we have no skills in the area so why would we go in that direction? Having that debate, which I believe would show up nuclear power for what it is, increases the political and public support for what we need to do, which is invest in renewables and energy efficiency. That is why I would be happy to conduct such a debate. A debate will be conducted in the public and in the media at any rate because they think it is a politically sensitive subject. Desensitising the subject and talking about it does us a service in energy policy.

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