Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I think the Minister of State and I appreciate her position here this evening in seeking to respond on behalf of the Minister. I appreciate that the Minister of State wishes to relay to the House just the information she has, which emanates from the Minister and his Department. I do not doubt the impact of international price pressures on our ability to provide electricity at the price it is today. I do not doubt the impact of war on that ability to provide energy at the prices we are charged today. However, international pressures or war had no impact whatsoever when the likes of ESB won contracts for renewable provision in 2016. International price pressures or war had no impact on the ESB when it withdrew from those commitments in 2020 and paid the penalty, and allowed our grid to remain unchallenged and allowed our price to be challenged and compromised also. I doubt that the international pressures or war had any influence on the Minister when he amended the Planning and Development Act in June 2020, when he initiated the procedure that allowed impending competition not to be fair for all of those who wished to apply for the same auctions that ensued. The State authority had an undue advantage by virtue of the fact that it did not have to have planning permission when others had. That is not fair or competitive. Perhaps the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, will relay to the Minister, Deputy Ryan, that it is high time he and his Department initiated a review or an investigation into our inability to provide adequate competition, which in turn would provide adequate price, over and above international average prices, which in this instance is 25% over and above. That needs to be addressed. There needs to be an independent assessment carried out to ascertain whether the accusations or assertions, or the information I have provided-----

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