Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Not only must we remain vigilant to the nonsense the Members opposite go on with, we also must remain vigilant to the fact we have a situation whereby the emergency supply of electricity places this nation under extreme pressure from time to time. While there was no immediate risk of blackouts and brownouts, there was a slim possibility of such. This measure by the Government will go some way to alleviating that issue in the winter of 2023-24.

As the Minister of State outlined, the Bill increases the level of borrowing available to EirGrid and Bord na Móna. This will expand the scope and ability of those organisations to address the needs of the country and the changing energy landscape both at home and abroad, including by way of grid investment. I welcome that. As I have stated, we need a modern management system within our critical infrastructure, resources for which should be made available to ensure we avoid unnecessary disruption to plants' production and that the older plant is used as it was designed to be used. I stress that we have been told repeatedly by the experts that the equipment was not used as it was designed. It was being throttled, or some such terminology, which is the reason it required servicing and, thus, was out of service.

I look forward to continuing this debate in the months and years ahead and, indeed, to contributing to the important planning we need to do at this time in order to meet the demands of our growing population and the increasingly diverse demand on our energy supplies.

See this speech in context