Noel Coonan (Tipperary North, Fine Gael)

I welcome the discussion tonight. I am bewildered by the comments from the Government Deputies who state that they welcome the debate and that there is not much between, yet they will not agree to the motion. We have just heard what Deputy Kelly had to say. We are debating an immediate set of proposals and policies to deal with what could soon become an energy crisis here.

If I stood up here two weeks ago and said that an unknown volcano with an unpronounceable name was to erupt and bring down air traffic from the skies of Europe, stranding thousands of Irish people far from home, then the Minister and the Acting Chairman would probably think I was mad. Unfortunately, this can happen and it did happen. The Venezuelan President declared a state of emergency two months ago, after the country had experienced its worst drought in 50 years and all the water in the damns dried up, leaving Venezuela without electricity. These are two examples of what can happen. Tonight we are encouraging and cajoling the Minister to take immediate action so that such occurrences cannot occur in Ireland.

I welcome the motion as proposed yesterday by my colleague, Deputy Coveney, who gave a comprehensive review. He covered a range of items that I do not wish to go back over, apart from mentioning two of them. One is that 95% of all our oil resources are imported and, second - which is most worrying - that we have 11 days' storage of gas supplies. However, as the chief executive of Bord Gáis has said, in reality that is seven days' supply. Some 60% of our electricity is generated through gas, which is worrying to say the least. If anything were to happen to those supplies, not only would jobs be affected but lives could equally be affected. We must take action and the first thing to do is protect the resources we already have. We must also increase those resources as well as increasing storage. We must also examine alternative energy sources with a view to developing them.

The smart, green economy seems to be the Minister's focus, but I am concerned that he is not dwelling enough on what we have already. The seas around our shores are reputedly rich in oil and gas reserves, but are we doing enough to get companies to explore and tap into those resources? If we struck oil or gas in our national waters, it would have a profound and positive effect on the economy.

The farming community has provided leadership on alternative energy and every piece of land in Ireland could be utilised to produce energy crops. For example, some weeks ago, Duggan Brothers in conjunction with young, modern farmers in the cattle and pig sectors, and Professor Gerry Murphy of University College, Cork, presented a proposal to the Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. It was entitled "Anaerobic Digestion in Ireland: the Problems and the Potential". The net benefit of this proposal would be to create 15,000 jobs in the construction, service and implementation phases. There would be no decrease in agricultural production. In addition, no capital injection would be required by the Government, while there would be a major reduction in greenhouse gases. That is an example of the entrepreneurship involved and the positive approaches that the Minister and his Government colleagues could tap into in order to alleviate our problems.

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