Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I thank colleagues on this side of the House as well as colleagues on the other side for their contributions to the motion. This is not the first time I have brought a Private Members' motion to the House in the hope that we could set aside party politics and agree on a motion that was written in an attempt to get agreement from Government, and this is not the first time that effort has been thrown back in my face. I sometimes wonder, as Deputy Barrett said, if it is futile of Opposition parties to attempt to use Private Members' time to try to achieve consensus on major issues.

God knows, it is not difficult to kick the Government these days. We can use all of our time to do that, if we want to, but we have chosen not to do so this week because this party believes we need to issue a warning to this country. Due to a lack of strategic planning by Government over a long period, we need to reduce Ireland's exposure to a complete reliance on importation of fossil fuels to run our economy and our lives. We are over-exposed as a country and we have no control over the price we pay for our fuel or over its security of supply.

We are attempting in this motion to reduce that exposure as a bridging exercise until we can get to the time the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and others speak about, when Ireland will be producing 40% to 60% of its power at home, with renewable sources and homegrown, indigenous fuels. We will get there. We will help the parties opposite to get there if they are in Government, and I hope they will do the same when we are in Government. However, we are not going to get there tomorrow. Today, we have the risk of exposure to a potential cut-off of supply of gas should something happen to a single pipeline in Scotland or the three interconnectors - one into Northern Ireland and two into the Republic of Ireland - which are filling this country with the gas we need to power our lifestyles.

We had a long and very productive committee meeting today on this issue. Almost everything we discussed at that meeting, we are supporting in the motion we put before the House this evening. We are practically suggesting the exact same thing the Government is suggesting in its amendment - there is a slightly different emphasis in certain areas but it is more or less the same. For example, we need to increase storage, we need to encourage LNG facilities to spread the risk and we need to get gas from Corrib into pipeline infrastructure for security reasons. Let us not get distracted by taxation issues or other dividends for the State out of our own natural resources. Today's debate is about energy security and about ensuring that 60% of the electricity that is generated in our country to heat our homes and turn on the lights continues, that we can stand over this and that people who come to invest in Ireland can be told convincingly there is no risk in terms of security of supply of electricity, power, heat and all the other requirements, today and tomorrow.

What I am interested in is the bridging between where we are today, namely, hugely exposed to a potential price spike, which is less likely for gas but, in my view, a certainty for oil, and where we can get to in 2020 and beyond, when hopefully we will have achieved and exceeded the targets the Government has rightly set. However, for the life of me, I cannot understand why, when an Opposition party attempts to achieve consensus in a responsible way and does not look to point-score, the Government and the Cabinet in particular take the view that they must be seen to be the people who actually put on the table the motion that is finally agreed.

It is as if the Green Party feels it has to have ownership of this issue and it cannot share consensus with other parties who are not in Government with it. That is small mindedness. It is what we heard from the Minister of State, Deputy Cuffe, yesterday, when he chose to use his time to have a go at an Opposition spokesperson about an irrelevant road project and when he tried to punch holes in some of the work we have been doing to promote Green Party ideas on electric transport.

This is a genuine effort from Fine Gael to achieve political consensus on a major issue. We make no apologies for that and will continue to do so. All I can do in my frustration with the Government's response is to appeal to it to take on board the ideas we have set down in the motion and make them happen as soon as possible.

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