Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Over the years, I have always made perfectly clear the importance of looking at every option and not being afraid of debate. Debate is, in fact, the most important and rigorous thing that one needs in order to assess all of the options. If one goes into such a debate saying that one will never discuss nuclear or gas storage in any format whatsoever, how will we then arrive at an informed debate and make the case that this is the correct way to go?

As I said, the war has changed everything in that we are going to switch away from that Russian gas. To put the debate in that wider context, that is a very significant issue in Europe where a very significant percentage of up to a half of gas use is coming from that source. Making the switch will be difficult. Different countries will have different approaches. Some countries, such as Germany, seem to be looking at the introduction of new energy terminals. I believe we will be in a different position because, as I said, the physics of the gas network we are connected to, with the UK and Norwegian gas and our own gas supply, puts us in a very different position from other countries.

There are a whole variety of different aspects to that, including the fact we do not have gas storage on the island. We have always said we are willing to discuss the likes of gas storage in the Kinsale gas field, salt caverns or other possible options. We said we will look at those options in an energy security review. That is what we are doing and in that context, we cannot look at the options while saying that we are never going to consider one or the other.

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