Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

A couple of things arise from the Minister’s comments. It will come as a major surprise to many of the Minister’s party members and the climate movement that he has said over the years that we have to keep all options open, including nuclear power. Over the years, what I have heard from the Minister, particularly as he considers himself a leader of the climate movement, is that we have to keep fossil fuels in the ground and that we must do this in order to reach Paris Agreement targets, to reduce our emissions and to take radical action. What the Minister is saying now is quite the reverse. He is leaving the door open to any form of power in the current climate, which he has just repeated there.

I find it contradictory, however, that his colleague, Deputy Hourigan, who is sitting in the Chamber now, has put forward a Bill to ban LNG facilities in the future. It is almost as if the Minister is saying that we may have to put up with one facility at Shannon, or possibly a State-led one, but in the future we are not going to have them. We need clarity from the Minister as to his position on this. It is unfair to the movement and to the Deputies in this House, who, like the Minister, are passionate and concerned about climate change, to have to try to figure out what the official position of the Government and of the Minister is in tying this country to a fossil fuel future.

See this speech in context