Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

I support this amendment and ask the Minister to accept it. It will not do any damage to the existing proposals. This country cannot afford to wait any longer to deal with the issue of applications for offshore renewable energy. The matter is too important. The number of onshore jobs which would be created by the development of offshore energy is enormous. I will outline an example. I spoke to a large multinational company yesterday which bought a company in Denmark with approximately 50 employees some years ago. Today it employs 3,500 people in the manufacturing of turbines alone.

If somebody arrived at the Taoiseach's door tomorrow and said he or she wished to invest in this country and could guarantee that within a short space of time 3,500 jobs could be created in manufacturing alone, every agency in the State would be crawling over the person involved. He or she would be having dinner in Farmleigh and would be brought to every State function, and rightly so if he or she was bringing inward investment into the country. We are ignoring those who are crying out for immediate action to be taken to enable them to get on with their investments.

That is why, as I said in my initial contribution, it is essential that in dealing with this issue the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources is included. One cannot develop offshore energy unless there is a connection to the grid. A new grid must be built which is capable of carrying sufficient power so we could be net exporters of electricity into the interconnection into Britain and Europe.

The European Union is proposing a super grid structure, which is part of what we voted on in the referendum on the Lisbon treaty, namely, that we would enable the European Union to develop a European energy policy. We are an island nation sitting on the western extremity of Europe and are currently totally dependent on gas from Russia. We have a resource which people are crying out to invest in and we do not have the legislative structure for them to do so.

I ask anybody on the other side of the House to get up off their backsides and go to meet people who wish to invest. The Government should not listen to me if it does not believe me, but it can come to our committee when such people appear before it and listen to their complaints. It could look up the website where we published the remarks we received from all types of people, including investors and members of the public, regarding our future electricity requirements.

We are spending €6.5 billion each year on importing fossil fuels into the country. Within a relatively short space of time we could transfer that money into the development of a business which would produce exports. Instead of sending €6.5 billion out of the country we could develop an industry here with a natural resource, but we do not have the structures to do so. This Bill does not provide for these structures.

As I said at the outset, the Joint Committee on Climate Change and Energy Security has produced a Bill which has not been examined. There is no mention in the Bill we are debating of bodies such as the Marine Institute, which has all the necessary information and has done all the mapping. The committee has nominated the Marine Institute as the planning authority to draw up a development plan. It is based in the Minister of State's constituency, which is the correct place for it because all the major offshore development will take place off the west coast. If we get our finger out, places like Mayo and Galway will become the Aberdeen of Ireland in the not too distant future.

It is an absolute disgrace that not only will people not listen to us but they deliberately ignore us. Having produced a Bill 12 months ago, the Leader of the Opposition and I have constantly asked where the Bill has gone. We sent it to the correct place, the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, but nobody seems to care. The other side of the House is entertaining the unions, telling us how to run the country and where we will get cuts. We have an opportunity to create jobs and inward investment but nobody is bothering to create the circumstances in which such development can take place. One cannot take €16 billion, which is waiting to be invested, and throw it away. With every day that passes, investment is going to other countries. If the Government does not believe me, it should talk to the people concerned. The investment has gone to Portugal, Denmark and Scotland. People are opening their arms to such investment.

I met Irish investors recently who have spent €52 million so far on developing a machine for tidal energy, which is being tested in Nova Scotia and Scotland because they cannot get a foreshore licence to do it here as we do not have the structures in place. We are rushing this Bill through the Dáil in two hours. It is no wonder the public are cynical about what is happening in this place. It is outrageous and people like me and others on the Opposition benches are wasting our time trying to encourage people to invest in this country. The Government, which has the power to do so, will not bother to introduce the necessary structures for that to happen. It is an absolute disgrace and if it cannot be bothered to allow investment to happen and stop the haemorrhage of jobs and investment from the country, the sooner it leaves its position the better.

I apologise for taking up so much time, but it is the only chance I have on the floor of the House to discuss the disgrace which is taking place. It has taken the Government two and a half years to get to the stage where it is transferring responsibility for foreshore licences from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. We are a laughing stock. That we are an island nation and the Foreshore and Dumping at Sea (Amendment) Bill 2009 is being handled by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food is a subject for a pantomime. It is a joke.

One can imagine the outcry in the country if it were decided to abolish the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. The farmers would be marching on the streets. However, with the stroke of a pen Fianna Fáil abolished the Department of the Marine without consulting anybody. It is an absolute disgrace.

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