Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful to the Office of the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this Topical Issue matter. It has been an important matter over many years, but over the past six days it has become even more important in the context of the geopolitical issues occurring in Ukraine. I wish to take this opportunity to express my complete revulsion and outrage at what has been done by Russian forces to the people of Ukraine over the past six days and express my solidarity with every man, woman and child in Ukraine. I hope that the glorified spy ring on Orwell Road known as the Russian Embassy, which I am sure is listening to what is being said this morning, as it is every day, will very soon get its marching orders out of this country never to come back.

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House and appreciate him for being here. However, it is unfortunate that the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is not here to take this matter because our energy security is something of utter importance right now and in the short, medium and long terms. Throughout Europe, countries have in the past six days pivoted in their position on energy security and changed their policies. In Germany, the Green Party is in government and a decision was made in recent days to build liquified natural gas, LNG, terminals. Issues that were not even on the table this time last week are now being considered and decisions are being made to change policy because of the over-reliance on gas coming from Russia and the time it will take to provide alternatives. People are now starting to think realistically and transition to renewable sources of energy that we all know are needed in the future. There is time in the middle and a period during which I am afraid that the lights will go out. I am very concerned that our only policy in this country for that transitional period seems to be one of complete denial and that we are, in effect, going to hope for the best and hope that the lights do not go out.

We have had many amber alerts regarding energy supply in recent times, before the appalling situation in eastern Europe kicked off. What do we think is going to happen in the future? This is something that is, as I said, of critical importance to our entire country and everybody on the island, yet our policy of denial is something that I feel will not work in the future. I do not believe that a Joe Jacob-style policy of handing a candle out to every household in case the lights go out, like the iodine tablets years ago - something we might need again - is enough. We need something more concrete. An application is currently up for a decision regarding the building of an LNG terminal on the Shannon estuary. This is an opportunity for Ireland to try to safeguard some of our national energy security, yet we have a stick our head in the sand approach from Government, as far as I can see, regarding what we need do to keep the lights on in this country. We all want to move to renewables, but that is not simple and cannot be done overnight. The misinformation and twist being put on the Shannon LNG application, which involves overlooking the renewable and transitionary elements of the application and its compatibility with future technologies, is concerning. I would appreciate a response from the Minister of State regarding whether those issues can be addressed.

See this speech in context