Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this very important motion and I congratulate Deputy Simon Coveney on tabling it. Deputy Coveney and other colleagues in my party have put a tremendous amount of work into the NewERA project. Tonight we are discussing security of power. Much of our power comes through one source in Scotland and that gas is used for the production of electricity and other purposes. We are extremely vulnerable and we saw what happened because of the volcano in Iceland this week. One never knows what will happen anywhere. The day we totally depend on one source for so much of our power is a very dangerous day.

We depend on the importation of oil and gas at such a level that it is extremely dangerous. We need to re-examine how we encourage the use of alternative energy. For years, I worked at trying to get various sources going, such as a biomass plant in Monaghan which would use poultry and mushroom waste. It was turned into an incinerator by people who were crazy, to put it bluntly. The raw material is now exported in lorry loads to be utilised in Scotland to produce cheaper electricity. After the BSE crisis, meat and bonemeal was stored for a while and was then exported to Germany for the Germans to produce cheaper and cleaner electricity.

Those who say we have come a long way have much to learn. Some people claim we have increased the production of natural electricity from wind farms over the past two years. I look at the wind farm outside Cootehill and think of all the years I spent with others trying to get it off the ground. It did not happen in the past two years; it happened over the past ten years with plenty of obstacles.

There are major pig farm structures in Monaghan, Cork and possibly other places, but in Cavan it is most serious. Not only are the pigs there but there is also a land structure which makes it difficult to use farm waste. There is no doubt this could be utilised by digesters if any thought was put into it by the Government to ensure capital aid was available and the structures whereby the ESB pays for it or allows it through its services were changed. An individual farmer or business person who wants to erect a windmill or another form of energy production must pay VAT. Other permanent structures erected on a farm are VAT refundable.

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