Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

It is ludicrous that a green party would oppose a moratorium when we are facing blackouts in this country. Our request was reasonable and moderate and called for a delay on development until necessary without outwardly banning the development of the sector, as was suggested in that recent contribution. The Government, particularly the Green Party, has not seen fit to support us in our call. In the absence of Government support for our proposal, we will support this well-timed Bill, which has been introduced by People Before Profit.

A moratorium would be good practice until we were clear about the implications of a dramatically expanding sector, the security of our energy supply can be guaranteed and people across Ireland can be certain that they will not pay the economic and environmental costs associated with energy-hungry projects of scale. A moratorium would also provide time to gain perspective on climate action. It is important to understand how prioritising the growth of a particular industry will affect an individual's effort to combat climate change. How can the Government justify asking people to make sacrifices to reduce their carbon footprint while, in the blink of an eye, data centre growth unravels all their hard work? People are doing their best to tackle climate change in their own way. Where they can, they are buying electric vehicles and are encouraged to do so while others are retrofitting their homes or buying more sustainable products. As we ramp up our response to climate change, our choices get even more difficult, but also more impactful. People need to know that the choices they are making amount to some change that will benefit our atmosphere and our global fight against climate change. They need to know that it is a fair and just transition to a zero-carbon economy.

When it comes to liquefied natural gas in Ireland, our message is much stronger - legislate to ban the construction of all LNG infrastructure and the importation of fracked gas. Nearly every environmental NGO, advocacy group and campaign group has been calling for this because we do not trust the Government's approach, which to date has been one of negligence. In the programme for Government, the coalition partners stated that they did not support the importation of fracked gas and they would develop a policy statement on the issue. A year later, we received a weak commitment from the Government. In that announcement, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, stated: "pending the outcome of a review of the security of energy supply of Ireland's electricity and natural gas systems ... it would not be appropriate for the development of any LNG terminals in Ireland to be permitted or proceeded with". He also indicated that the Government would not introduce legislation to that effect, as to do so would require changes to international rules such as European energy laws. However, other tools are available to him and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Under section 29 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, the latter has the power to issue policy directives to planning authorities regarding their functions under that Act and An Bord Pleanála must comply with any policy directive issued. There was an opportunity for him to issue a policy directive once the Government's statement on its current position was made. While that was at the discretion of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications could have sent guidance to him to issue directives to that effect.

When my colleague, Deputy Whitmore, received a response, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, said that the policy statement was notified to An Bord Pleanála and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage following its approval by the Government. Under the 2000 Act, An Bord Pleanála is statutorily obliged to have regard to Government policy, including the policy statement on the importation of fracked gas, yet this does not go far enough in addressing the insecurities around LNG construction. Shannon LNG was still able to put in an application. It is not enough that An Bord Pleanála must have regard to Government policy. It must be set out in law.

The Government's approach has done nothing to alleviate concerns about our dependence on gas, the threat of importing fracked gas and its own climate action targets. This all came just weeks after the Government published its revised climate action Bill, which notably left out the then Joint Committee on Climate Action's recommendation on banning LNG. In effect, all the Government has done is ban LNG but it has not approached this sector.

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