Arthur Spring (Kerry North-West Limerick, Labour)

I thank the Minister for attending the House. With regard to the report published by the Commission for Energy Regulation on 29 June 2012, I wish specifically to highlight how it impacts on my constituency and on the Ballylongford landbank which, unbeknown to many people in the House and country, is the second deepest water port in the entirety of Europe. Unfortunately, it has been the subject of many false dawns to date. In the 1970s Aran Energy considered building an oil refinery on this piece of land. With some foresight, the State has taken a landbank of approximately 600 acres which if it existed in any other part of Europe would be the site of great industry and employment. With respect, I must state I am disappointed not so much with the findings but with how the matter has played out since 2001. In 2001 the then Minister with responsibility for enterprise decided we needed a new interconnector between Ireland and the UK with the capacity to transport 22 million cu. m of gas per day. This was built and in 2002 the regulator took control of the market.

The Department of the Taoiseach commissioned a report from the Economist Intelligence Unit in 2009. Our regulator is independent and a public agency. A table reveals a considerable variety in the legal status of European regulators and the independence of energy regulators. In Ireland and Portugal they are independent public agencies. To this end complete responsibility lies with the independent regulator who faces consequences for making judgments deemed to be inappropriate. Will the Minister highlight how he can ask the Judiciary to rule on this if needs be and how we can act within the EU Commissioner's regulations?

In 2005 the regulator decided a tariff regime was needed for external sources, because at the time 95% of our gas was coming from the State-owned interconnectors and the ring main, with 5% coming from Kinsale. The Corrib gas field was coming on stream and at the time the regulator was under no illusion about having to put a tariff in place. In 2006, Hess Engineering, along with Shannon LNG, looked at developing the Ballylongford site for the purpose of a gas LNG plant which would bring an investment of between €600 million and €1 billion to our country. This would bring foreign moneys, create jobs and provide a positive start to energy provision which would ultimately realise more jobs in Kerry Group and the Tarbert fuel station which would now become a gas generating station. This would be positive for the country and for north Kerry. It is now 2012 and the issues are still not resolved. Eleven years have passed since the first proposals were made and the timeframe now proposed for a resolution by the regulator is October 2014. This is unacceptable. It is not the kind of conduct one would expect in a commercial and viable country.

I am not happy with the conduct of the regulator. I understand the issue is highly complex but many people do not understand that. It is time the issue was brought to a conclusion. I have made recommendations to Bord Gáis Networks, to Shannon LNG and to members of the committee dealing with transport, communications and energy on the need for a special Oireachtas committee meeting to discuss whether a judicial review is warranted as a result of the tariffs being proposed. The Brattle Group, which is commissioned by governments and independent gas companies throughout the world, has referred to the situation here. It stated that in terms of process and managing legitimate expectation, the CER does not seem to have followed best practice. The CER presented four options in a July 2011 consultation paper and has rejected all of those subsequently.

See this speech in context