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

I do not regard County Kerry as peripheral and I assure the Deputy that if Shannon LNG proposed to build a terminal at Ringsend, precisely the same European regulatory framework would be applied.

In terms of my capacity to give a general direction, the Deputy is correct, I can do so, but I cannot give a direction that would aid a particular company. I am in a very unusual position, not because of any action of the Department or any agent of the State or the Government but as a result of the decision by the company to seek a judicial review. A distinguished, now retired, High Court judge weighed up all of the issues which the Deputy advanced. I entirely understand the Deputy's passion in the matter. I have had discussions with local representatives in County Kerry, including the Minister, Deputy Jimmy Deenihan, and Deputy Arthur Spring, and understand the compelling arguments about employment and the desirability of such a facility being built in north Kerry, but a regulatory framework is in place and part of the responsibility of the regulator is to ensure neither consumer nor business is subjected to higher prices as a result of any one operator getting a free ride on the system. If this were to happen in the case before us, it would also happen in the case of the Corrib project which will bring ashore gas in mid-2015 and which has the capacity to meet more than 50% of the needs of the domestic market at peak output.

The principles the Deputy is pursuing were subjected to great examination in the High Court and its judgment is there to be read. I do not believe the people of County Kerry are less able to read a High Court judgment than the people of Dublin and suspect some of those drum beating on Radio Kerry know better because they have been well able to read the judgment which was not brought by me but by the company. It obtained the judgment and has until 31 January to appeal it, after which date I will be available to it at 48 hours notice if it thinks there is any way I can help the plant to be established in Ballylongford. As the Minister with responsibility for energy matters, I certainly want to see the plant not only for the purposes of local employment creation but because of the added string it would give to our bow in terms of energy security and security of supply.

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