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

I very much agree that we need to upgrade, improve and modernise our grid but I would not agree with the Deputy saying that nobody has been talking about it. Very ambitious plans have been published to improve and modernise the grid, including the North-South interconnector, the Celtic interconnector between Ireland and France, and Grid West. At times they are controversial but no one can doubt that, with a growing population, an expanding economy and the move to renewables, we will need to improve and modernise our power grid.

There are different types of natural gas, including green gas; brown shale gas, which we want to avoid; and blue gas, which is the natural gas from the sea. It is acknowledged, and it is Government policy, that natural gas is a transition fuel. We will need to use natural gas, and lots of it, for the next 20 or 30 years, and we will need to see new gas-fired power stations built.

There may come a time when we can produce so much wind that we will be able to use the excess wind to produce hydrogen. That point may arrive, in 20 or 30 years' time, when we do not need gas in our system and we can rely entirely on renewables but we are very far away from that. In the meantime, we will need new gas-fired power plants to provide that power when we need it.

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