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

Our equivalent to French nuclear power or New Zealand hydropower is offshore wind energy. We have some of the strongest winds in the world and the technology is there to harness this energy and export over a distance. I am very glad that the Taoiseach signed a contract with the French in respect of an interconnector in recent days. That is how we can ship energy in. We will be selling the French wind-generated energy and occasionally we will get French nuclear-generated energy in return. We cannot decide which electron is which. Our way forward is to use our deep Atlantic waters as an energy sources for the rest of Europe, at scale. I do not believe that any greater security is brought to this country by searching for more oil and gas. The Minister did not answer my fundamental question as to how doing so provides greater energy security. The reality is that we are in a global, fungible market for oil and gas. Oil has always been traded this way since the first oil crisis in the 1970s. Gas has become so since the Russian gas crisis in 2008. Europe has changed all the rules in order to ensure there is security in both of those markets. Oil does not come with an Irish flag or any other flag attached; it is sold in an internationally-traded market and shipped around the world. All we would be doing by going out looking for more of it is adding to a store of oil that is going to burn our planet.

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