Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I would like the Minister to explain a reply my party member Deputy Bríd Smith got on the proposed liquefied natural gas, LNG, terminal at the Port of Cork. With regard to climate action, this represents a quite substantial shift. Many in this Chamber believed that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil were moving away from the concept of LNG terminals. Let me quote material from the talks going on not far from this place: "Both of our parties accept that as we move towards carbon neutrality, it does not make sense to build new large-scale fossil fuel infrastructure such as liquid natural gas import terminals [at this moment]." According to the reply Deputy Bríd Smith received, the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, which I acknowledge is not the Department of Mr. Ross, and Gas Networks Ireland are supportive of the project. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport should correct me if I am wrong in believing this represents a major policy shift by the Government. How can we take this Government or the next one seriously on the importation of fracked gas into Ireland? Could the Minister comment on that?

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