Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As we sit here today the spectre of war once again looms over Europe. We can but hope that it will amount to sabre-rattling of old superpowers and that the dreadful vista of another conflict on our continent on the edge of the European Union does not come to pass. Throughout history, wars have been fought ostensibly over territory, identity, religion and a myriad of other excuses or reasons but at the heart of many if not most wars has been resources, specifically access to and control of resources. Europe is dependent on Russian gas. It brokers for peace and stability with one hand tied behind its back knowing that the heat and electricity that flows to millions of homes throughout the continent can be curtailed and that the price of heat and electricity can be driven upwards.

This is not a hypothetical scenario. We know it is already happening. The energy crisis we are experiencing and the deteriorating geopolitical crisis are two sides of the same coin. As a member of the Green Party I have spoken many times in the House about why we must reduce our dependence on all fossil fuels as quickly as possible for inarguable climate reasons. However, it is clear that energy security is another reason we must do so. True energy independence and security of supply will come from developing our indigenous energy resources, with those resources being clean and renewable.

We have more energy in the confines of our borders than we will likely ever need but we have barely started to harness it. The events on the Ukraine border as much as the climate crisis compel us here in Ireland to expedite our efforts. We should not and cannot do so alone. The scale of the challenge to develop this infrastructure is such that we need Europe's help through financing, labour, expertise and regulation. It is in Europe's interest that we in Ireland build up as quickly as possible our deep water port capacity to stage arrays of thousands of large wind turbines off the Atlantic coast and that our interconnection capacity is ramped up so that we, and not the Russians, can send vast amounts of power, and clean power as opposed to fossil fuel power, to Europe when it needs it.

There are parallels today with the oil crisis of the 1970s. Back then it was other European countries, notably Denmark and Germany, that seized the opportunity and ultimately developed major renewable energy industries. Ireland faltered. Instead we flirted with the idea of nuclear power at Carnsore in Wexford before settling on building a hugely polluting coal power station at Moneypoint in Clare. Neither nuclear nor coal are the answer for Ireland now when we have vast quantities of realisable energy off our shores.

In future our homes can and I believe will be heated with Irish renewable electricity. For this to happen we need to undertake a massive retrofitting programme. We will learn the details of this in the coming weeks. The programme will set a plan for hundreds of thousands of homes throughout Ireland to remove fossil fuel boilers and install heat pumps. We will reduce the need for energy by retrofitting installation and replacing windows with low u-value glazing. The homes of the future will be airtight with heat recovery ventilation systems to ensure fresh air while reducing heat loss to outside.

Everything I have said today indicates the direction we are going. It will be a Herculean effort. The question remains as to how quickly we can get there. For climate reasons as well as for energy security reasons we must get there as quickly as possible. It is urgent. We must apply every lever at our disposal and turn to Europe to assist us.

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