Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Fleming is right about this country being overly reliant on imports of fossil fuels. As an island and as the most isolated of the 27 EU member states, Ireland is vulnerable as long as 100% of its oil and 90% of its gas must be imported. Of course, gas is used to a large degree in the generation of electricity. It is not something which keeps the citizens of Ireland awake at night but security of supply is a real issue and it must be afforded a very high level of precedence among the policy objectives of the government of the day. Earlier, I informed Deputy Moynihan of my hope that the new public service broadcasting charge might be in place before the end of 2014 and I would like to inform Deputy Fleming of my hope that gas from the Corrib will be coming ashore at the same time. I am sure Deputy Fleming would get good odds from Paddy Power on which of my hopes might prove to be wrong in this regard. The Corrib field would supply 60% of our needs at peak. That fact is not insignificant.

Deputy Fleming also inquired about the LNG project. The latter has as much support from the Government as can be given to it. The project is being navigated through the regulatory process and the Deputy may well be aware that it has recently been the subject of a court case. A decision in this regard has not yet been handed down by the court but I expect that it will be forthcoming before the next occasion on which I take Question Time.

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