Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I can confirm that the ban on new oil and gas exploration licences does not apply to existing licences or concessions, only to new ones. The ban on gas exploration was announced by me, as Taoiseach, about a year or two ago. We are now going to legislate to ban exploration for oil and gas but existing licences and concessions will still be honoured. However, that is not the way of the future. I think we all appreciate that investment in oil and gas infrastructure is expensive and does not make sense if the plan is to move away from fossil fuels over the next few decades. That is why the Government is really ambitious about renewable energy, including offshore and onshore wind as well as other technologies. By expanding them dramatically we can reduce greenhouse gases and imports of coal, oil and gas and we can also become an electricity exporter. We currently do this on occasion but we want to do this much more.

As for the kinds of things the Government is doing, it has doubled the ESB's borrowing limit from €6 billion to €12 billion. That work is currently under way and will allow the ESB to borrow on the markets and invest big time in wind energy. Second, we are working hard to get a new marine planning law through because one of the biggest problems we have when it comes to offshore wind is a very complicated planning consent procedure to bring the wind power ashore. It is really out of date and needs to be updated. Those are the two things the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is working on with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. They are trying to get that done in the next couple of weeks or months.

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