Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister on his appointment and wish him the best going forward. The European Council meeting of 17 and 18 July will have to tackle many issues that are of huge concern to the Irish economy. We need clarity on where Irish fishermen stand regarding Brexit and the serious fallout from Irish and European trawlers being asked to vacate British waters, as it looks like will happen. That is a two-tier worry for Irish fishermen, first because they are being forced to vacate British waters and second, if Irish and European trawlers are forced out, they may all turn to the already overfished Irish Sea. This needs clarity and I hope the Minister will bring some back from that meeting.

Ireland currently produces more than 50% of our electricity from gas and we import gas via interconnectors from the UK. We have no existing gas storage on the island of Ireland. The Corrib gas field will be gone within ten years and we are now fully reliant on the UK for gas imports. The UK is also reliant on gas imports and has experienced its own decline in gas production in the North Sea. The UK is exiting the EU, meaning new risks to our economy. While the UK and Ireland are good friends now, the same cannot exactly be said for the EU and the UK, which are going through what looks like a messy divorce at the moment. If trade talks between the EU and the UK were to take a turn, there is not much preventing the British national grid operator from increasing tariffs on the interconnectors between the EU and the UK, which will in turn directly hurt the Irish economy. I urge the Minister to work on a solution when he is in Europe and if a solution is not forthcoming, I ask him to improve our security of supply for natural gas. At the minimum, he should consider a floating liquified natural gas, LNG, import terminal, which can guarantee our security of supply while developing offshore wind power and renewable energy sources.

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