Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for asking this important question. Ireland imports approximately three quarters of its natural gas from the UK, with the remainder coming from the Corrib field. The UK has a diverse supply of gas, including indigenous UK gas, Norwegian gas, liquefied natural gas and via interconnectors with Belgium and the Netherlands. The UK and, by extension, Ireland are not heavily reliant on Russian gas, although the actions by Russia have placed upward pressure on gas and, consequently, electricity prices. Ireland has no gas storage or LNG.

The national energy security framework, published in April 2022, sets out the response of the Government to the Ukraine crisis in the context of natural gas, oil and electricity. The framework provides a single overarching initial response to address Ireland's energy security needs in the context of the war in Ukraine. The development of this framework has taken account of the need to decarbonise our society and economy as set out in recent reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, as well as Ireland's targets to reduce emissions by 51% over the decade to 2030 and reach net zero emissions by 2050 as set out in the climate action plan. The framework sets out the Government's action in response to these issues across key themes as follows: managing the impact on consumers and businesses; ensuring security of energy supply in the near term; and reducing our dependency on imported fossil fuels.

The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications has established a new energy security emergency group, chaired by the Secretary General, which is co-ordinating and overseeing national-level activity and responses in the context of the impact of the war on energy security. The group includes representatives of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, the National Oil Reserves Agency, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, Gas Networks Ireland, EirGrid and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland. The work of the group includes: overseeing the implementation of the national energy security framework which has set out the national responses to the impacts on the energy sector; co-ordinating a response to support consumers and businesses, with a focus on financially vulnerable households and those in or at risk of energy poverty; and ensuring emergency plans are up to date and stress tested.

At EU level, measures are in place to address the implications of the war in Ukraine, including any disruption of gas from Russia. These include updated risk analysis and contingency planning, and putting in place a new EU law to ensure that gas storage facilities in the EU are filled in advance of the coming winter. The European Commission is engaging with other countries to ensure sufficient and timely supply of natural gas to the EU from diverse sources across the globe to avoid supply shocks, including those that could result from disruptions.

The war in Ukraine has impacted Europe's energy system and triggered a decision by the European Union to phase out its dependency on Russian gas, oil and coal imports as soon as possible. This will also impact where and how we source that energy and change how we design energy policy to ensure the long-term resilience of the system. The European Commission's RePowerEU communication issued last Wednesday, 18 May, sets out the measures it proposes to end dependence on Russian energy by saving energy, diversifying supplies away from Russia, substituting fossil fuels by accelerating Europe's clean energy transition, removing financial and regulatory barriers to rolling out infrastructure, and ensuring member states have contingency plans to deal with any disruption in supplies from Russia. In addition, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications is carrying out a review of the security of energy supply of Ireland's electricity and natural gas systems. It is expected that the review will be completed in the coming months and then submitted to the Government.

Coming back to the issue of the upcoming winter, Ireland is one of the countries in Europe that is least reliant on Russian gas. There is no immediate threat to our gas supplies. Notwithstanding this, in the event of any gas supply emergency, there is excellent co-operation between Irish and UK gas system operators in respect of gas supplies from the UK. This co-operation includes regular testing of emergency plans by the operators. Ireland's gas-fired power plants are capable of running on liquid fuels in the event of a gas supply disruption and have storage of fuels available.

I again thank the Deputy for raising this matter and look forward to hearing his views.

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