Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd, and welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill. In moving the economy forward, an element that will be critical in enabling us to encourage investment and employment is that we have the necessary and adequate infrastructure to sustain employment. Part of this will be the provision of a good water supply and part will be the provision of reliable, fast broadband service but a very important part will have to be a good, reliable, accessible, affordable energy sector.

It is a part of the competitiveness issue that we are often reluctant to put this sector in the headlights and examine the implications it has for the economy as a whole. We are often encouraged to speak about competitiveness in terms of just one headline, that being salaries, costs of employment and so on, but access to a good and reliable energy source is something we have to come to terms with. We cannot reach a situation where, for example, industrial employers are faced with energy interruptions. Where employers look to move into the regions, isolated areas or small towns and villages, we cannot have a situation where they do not have access to a reliable energy supply, whether from EirGrid or another future supplier.

In talking about the country's energy sector, it is important to point out that at present 95% of our energy comes from imported fossil fuels. While huge improvements are being made in the renewable energy sector in terms of wind, particularly in my part of the country where there is a huge number of wind turbines, we are behind the curve in regard to international best practice on deriving energy from renewable sources. One need only look at the amount of energy recovered in Ireland from tidal sources, which is practically nil. Although many people have become involved in solar energy recently as private individuals from the point of view of retrofitting and making houses more energy efficient, the State is not doing much.

With regard to the amount of energy used in State buildings, I ask that the State assess how energy efficient its stock of infrastructure is, whether this is in Government offices, post offices or any other national infrastructure, in the same way the local authorities did this in regard to their office buildings and, to a lesser degree, their housing stock. The energy efficiency of these buildings and the amount of renewable energy used to heat and light them is, I assume, practically nil. From the Government's point of view, there is an opportunity to lead by example in this regard.

Deputies referred to interconnection and the importance of having the national grid connected to the UK and mainland Europe. This goes back to the point on over-reliance on imported fossil fuels. While we have an emerging wind energy sector, the problem is that there are times of the year and even times of the day when there are fluctuations in the amount of energy that can be recouped from wind. It is important, if we are building a good amount of renewable energy sources into the overall national picture, that we have reliability so we can switch on and off the tap from Britain and further afield in mainland Europe.

This brings me to the section of the Bill dealing with energy efficiency. We must question the efficiency of our grid and the amount of energy lost throughout the country through dissipation from power lines. If we were to liken the national grid to a highway, there is a dual carriageway through the centre of the country, a set of national roads off it and a series of local roads. We need to look strategically at the national grid with a view to addressing the imbalance. At present the national grid is almost like a mainline railway station in that people can go anywhere they want as long as it is Dublin. It is the same with the national grid in that it goes anywhere people want as long as it is Dublin, because the main power plants, some of which are located close to my area at Moneypoint, Tarbert and Ardnacrusha, are all cabled into and out of Dublin. In terms of balanced regional development, there is an opportunity to act on this issue.

The Bill refers to energy efficiency and to the sustainable energy Ireland project. I implore the Minister of State to talk to his colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, who has responsibility for local authority housing. At present, long-term local authority tenants have no way of getting their houses insulated to make them more energy efficient. However, if they move out and leave a house vacant, the local authority will make it energy efficient, which is a ridiculous situation as the local authorities should try to reward the person who has been there and paying rent down through the years.

I welcome the Bill and wish the Minister of State with responsibility for the NewERA agency the best in the next few years. This legislation is hugely important and has the potential to make a major impact on the economy.

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