Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Will the Minister recognise this part of the challenge? We know that by 2050, we have to stop using fossil fuels. The Government is going to commit to it and the Taoiseach already said so in an answer to a question I put to him last week. We know that if we are to do that and stop runaway dangerous climate change, which will ruin everyone's future, we have to keep four fifths of the known fossil fuel reserves - that is, reserves that have been discovered - in the ground. We know that if that is the case, the last thing we should be doing is looking for more oil and gas, in particular in hazardous and expensive environments like the deep Atlantic. We know that we have gone out about 160 times and found three pockets of gas in the last 30 to 40 years of looking, using up massive amounts of speculative money in that process. We know that even if we found something far out on the Porcupine, several hundred kilometres away from our shore, the likelihood of it being landed on our shores is minimal. The distances are so great that it would be cheaper, easier and less contentious to ship it into some refinery harbour elsewhere. It, therefore, gives us no real security.

We know that we have huge potential if we put all the civil servants who are working on this together with all that Irish Stock Exchange money and speculative engineering into the development of offshore wind energy projects, where we have massive comparative competitive advantage, we really could provide an energy power supply for the future. The technology is certain, the economics are clear and this makes sense.

Instead, the Government is fixated on still looking for oil and gas. I refer to the Government decision this week, which was scandalous in its disregard for this House. After a year and half of using every trick in the book to delay the climate emergency Bill, at the last minute, just before we were to go into Committee Stage to debate these questions, it reversed its decision of 15 months ago that we did not need a money order as it did not have fiscal implications. At the last minute, having tried every trick to block the Bill, it said that we will not even debate the issue.

We need to work together to rise to this climate challenge because, as the Minister said, the scale of the challenge is beyond compare. I would love not to be debating this issue but rather be discussing, as Deputy Howlin just did, the intricate details of how we could improve our energy efficiency and protect people through Just Transition.

We must consider first things first. In this climate challenge, one cannot be taken seriously if one is still looking for oil and gas. Can the Minister explain to me in simple language why he is burning Fine Gael's reputation for care on climate in the approach he is taking to this issue?

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