Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I accept that we need to do more. We need to do everything that we possibly can. The Deputy spoke about petrol and diesel prices. I note the recent protest by the truck drivers. The fundamental problem here is that the international price of commodities holds us to ransom, and has done for decades. When the international price of gas or oil goes up, we cannot make that go away. We can try to chase the prices and give subsidies and so on, but we can never really overcome that. The price of a barrel of oil increased, over a few years, from $10 to $140. It is a fundamental weakness in the system. People talk about renewable energy and say that it is variable and we do not know when we are going to get it, but there is huge variability and volatility in the price of fossil fuels. That puts us at risk. It is an ongoing strategic risk to our country that will be removed by the switch to green energy.

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