Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My party will support the Private Members' motion and I thank the Regional Group for tabling it. We welcome that the Government will accept the motion. As my colleague, Deputy Mac Lochlainn outlined, we hope it will also support our amendment. We are a tiny island. It is the first land the wind coming across the Atlantic Ocean meets. This means that as an energy source offshore wind is a big win for us. It gives us an opportunity to be able to ensure we can provide affordable energy for our people rather than the very expensive electricity bills we receive at present.

I want to highlight not just the importance of offshore energy as we meet our emissions target but the energy sector in its entirety. Since energy is vital to how we live, work and communicate, it is vital that this essential public service should not be left to the mercy of the markets. To leave such a vital public service in private ownership would be wrong and, frankly, very irresponsible. The State must be in there to lead powerfully and responsibly from the front. We cannot allow our people to face a crisis in energy such as the crisis they face in housing and homelessness because of the vagaries of the market. It is essential that semi-State bodies such as the ESB and Bord na Móna are given every support necessary to develop offshore capacity and, just as importantly, to keep ownership of that capacity. The State cannot and must not be left dependent on private capacity as it is at present with fossil fuels. We know the trouble this is causing for us.

Consulting with local communities is essential, not as a glossy and meaningless public relations exercise but as a real listening and learning engagement. The people are central to this and a Government that disrespects the people does so at its peril. As a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action I am especially anxious that community groups are given every help and opportunity to get involved in offshore energy through co-operatives. This underscores the idea and the fact of offshore energy as a public good and a public asset and not simply a market commodity to be traded by the few for profit. With climate change we are facing new ways of living and being in our world. As my comrade, Deputy O'Rourke outlined, the Government is not acting with the urgency needed to deliver for our people. The co-operative and community will matter more than ever because there is meitheal in the wind around us.

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