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

The lights are not going to go off. The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications has signed off on the commissioning and construction of nine new gas plants in Ireland in the coming years. We acknowledge that natural gas is a transition fuel that we are going to need over the next 20 or 30 years while we decarbonise the country and the economy. If the crisis and the war in Ukraine do anything, they expose once again our vulnerability to fossil fuel dependence. Even if there was no climate crisis, we can see now more than ever how vulnerable we are and how dependent we are on oil, gas and coal that does not come from here or even from western Europe;it comes from places like Russia, the Gulf region in the Middle East and South America. It is not right that we as a country should be so dependent on fossil fuels. Even if it was not for the climate crisis, for economic and security reasons, we need to wean ourselves off our dependence on fossil fuels.

As the Deputy said, there is a planning application for an LNG terminal in Tarbert in north Kerry. I am familiar with that project, which is currently at planning permission stage. It is not supported by the Government but if it gets planning permission and if the company that has applied for planning permission is able to fund it, then it will be in a position to build it, but I do not think that is the right investment for that site. This is an area that is close to the mouth of the Shannon Estuary. It is very close to our offshore wind resources in the west, and it is very close to the national grid, which is plugged into Moneypoint and Tarbert. What I would like to see happen there over the next ten years is the development of offshore wind. The wind would be brought ashore and if electricity is needed, it can be plugged into the grid and used to power our homes, factories, farms and businesses and when it is not needed, it can be turned into hydrogen. It can also be turned into fertiliser as well. This is the future. It is using that offshore wind resource for electricity, for hydrogen as a replacement to natural gas and for green and sustainable fertilisers. Those kinds of investments that are potentially happening in north Kerry should not be seen as five- or ten-year investments; they should be seen as a 30-year investment. In my view, the right investment is not LNG; it is LHG, liquid hydrogen gas. That is what we need on that site.

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