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

I will start by arguing this motion has nothing to do with energy security and everything to do with profit and the bottom-line security of Providence's resources. Perhaps the rural Deputies might considering altering their headed paper to say, instead of "I'm working on behalf of the people of this or that county", "I'm working on behalf of big oil and gas". It seems they really believe that Providence oil and gas will be the saviour of us all. If only we could free Providence from the nasty grip of the Green Party, it would bring down the cost of living, cure climate change, bring joy to the poor town and village dwellers, replenish the State's tax coffers and probably even defeat Putin into the bargain.

Apparently, Providence oil and gas has a miraculous quality that makes it different from other oil and gas companies. Not long ago, I was accused of hypocrisy by one of these climate warriors because I drive a diesel van. However, it turns out that once my diesel van and everyone else's diesel van runs on Providence oil, the problem will be solved. According to the lobby register, Providence Resources has not approached a single Deputy or official in this Dáil since May 2020, when it last met Deputy McGrath to discuss the wonders of Barryroe. It must have been some meeting because, two years later, despite the turbulent time the company has had, Deputy McGrath was so impressed by the briefing that he has composed one of the longest motions in the Dáil, a love-struck motion to a private oil and gas company.

I note the Deputies' concern, with us being dependent on various dictators and tyrants for our oil and gas, but they do not seem to realise that Providence would not have and never has had an issue with entering a marriage with Chinese or Qatari states if it meant it could exploit Barryroe. I agree we need to get away from dependence on oil and gas from dictators, but I go much further and say we need to get away from dependence on oil and gas, full stop. Whether it is fracked US gas, Canadian crude oil or Russian gas, we need to get off this train as soon as possible.

Nevertheless, I have to commend the proposers of the motion on their achievement in cramming in so many half-truths, misleading statements and outright falsehoods into one motion. I want to go through a few of them. The first one is that "Ireland is in an extremely vulnerable and utterly unsustainable position in terms of security of energy supply".

This is not true. What makes us insecure is the crazed policy of allowing data centres to proliferate. It is a policy the Deputies support regardless of whether these centres consume 14% or 30% of all the electricity we make. Another half-truth is that all Irish consumers will face much higher fossil fuel prices following the EU leaders' agreement to ban most Russian oil imports. We face these hikes primarily because of profiteering by energy companies and private firms. We do not depend on Russian gas. Profits have leapt enormously since this crisis began. That is an aspect of the free market, which I am in favour of regulating and controlling to prevent profiteering, but the Deputies are strong believers in that free market. Why would they not be?

The statement that the monetary cost of importing oil represents a net loss to the Irish economy and the Exchequer is utterly untrue. Whatever Providence Resources does with its fields, it will sell its oil and gas at market prices to whoever wants them. Those are the terms of the leasing licence in this State. There is absolutely nothing to say it must or will sell to the State and nothing to say that it will do so cheaper than the oil and gas we currently import. It would be very good news for the Providence shareholders but it will not make a blind bit of difference to the people of this country. Do the Deputies believe that Shell or Equinor sell us Corrib gas cheaper because they put on the green jersey?

The biggest and most dangerous untruth is the one that states there is no justifiable case for not developing our own available gas and oil. This is a slap in the face to the school strikers and the climate movement. It is a death sentence to millions in the developing world and a condemnation for this and future generations. There is no justifiable case relating to the science that states we have ten years to reduce our emissions, the International Energy Agency, which states that the globe cannot build new fossil fuel infrastructure, or the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, which told us that our carbon budget would run out in years and that investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure is moral and economic madness. Moral and economic madness is an apt description of this motion. It states, "Providence Resources unreservedly supports Government and EU policies aimed at tackling climate change". Maybe it does in its imagination in the same way Shell, BP, Exxon and Saudi Aramco do. They do so in words while, with every fibre of their being, they engage in drilling and profiteering from oil and gas as long as it is possible. The cry of the fossil fuel corporations and their shareholders is, "To Hell with future generations".

Another claim relates to Ireland having enormous potential to become self-sufficient with the full optimisation of Barryroe. The claim is that there are 300 million barrels of oil in Barryroe and it would not make a jot of difference to Ireland's economy, its energy security or the ordinary people of this world. Its exploitation would swell the coffers and profits of the Providence shareholders. Across the globe, oil and gas companies and their backers make the same claims as they do here. In reality, they are destroying the planet and its future habitability. In April, we found that just 20 of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, including Shell, Exxon, Gazprom and others, are projected to spend €932 billion by the end of 2030 to develop new oil and gas fields. Globally, we will emit more carbon dioxide than ever before. The levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will reach historic highs. None of the consequences, including the extreme heat, drought or storms affecting millions across the globe, matter to those who see just a few more dollars in the oil and gas industry. We need to keep it in the ground and make sure every penny available for investment finds its way into renewable energy, retrofitting every home and paying for free, frequent public transport throughout the country.

The Deputies are right that the Green Party is failing, but it is not, ironically, in the way that the Deputies seem to think. The Green Party is failing to deliver radical measures to address climate emergency demands. It is failing to stop data centres, to retrofit homes on the scale we need and to deliver free public transport. We need that to tackle the root causes of the crisis. The clear contradictions in Government policy allow climate change deniers to deride all climate action. They put carbon taxes on ordinary people while supporting the proliferation of data centres and allowing the fossil fuel industry and its backers to be able to say it is a con, that the Government just wants to tax people and that it is not serious at all. We have tabled an amendment to the motion. It will probably never get heard, but I would like to draw people's attention to it. It is quite a lengthy amendment. I believe I do not have to move it today, but we want to get the Deputies who have spoken against this motion to back that amendment if they have a chance.

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