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

With all due respect to the Minister, and it is not my intention to insult him as I love debate and this is part of that debate, he has changed his position fundamentally by saying that we will leave the door open to LNG and to other forms of gas storage importation and the possibility of nuclear power. This is an extraordinary position that the Minister is presenting as a Green Party leader and a Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications with responsibility for energy in a climate disaster. We will not even reach the target set by this Dáil in the Bill that was passed and we will not reach the Paris Agreement targets if we go down the road that is being argued by the Minister.

The Minister is misleading the public by saying this is connected with the war in Ukraine. We do not rely on Russian gas. For the next ten years, 27% of our supply will be coming from Corrib and the remaining 73% through the Moffat interconnector, which the Minister just acknowledged is mainly Norwegian and British gas coming from the North Sea. To twist this whole debate around to the Ukrainian disaster is not fair and is misleading the public. Can the Minister repeat for me again, please, what the official Government position is on the creation of an LNG terminal and the location of such a terminal in this country, and the possibility of nuclear power? Please focus on the LNG question?

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