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

I thank all the Deputies for their insightful comments on this emergency legislation. It is, indeed, emergency legislation. We are trying to address an immediate problem, the security of electricity supply, and to get more credit to people's electricity accounts for the coming winter. It is vital we deliver this legislation to enable these priorities. I appreciate the Deputies’ comments and I appreciate the widespread support from Deputies from all parties that there is a need for secure electricity supplies and for credits to be given to electricity customers, even if there are other things we should do as well. There were a broad range of contributions, including on renewables, the cost of living, data centres and the role of the Commission for Regulation of Utilities. I will keep my comments focused on this Bill. I am going to address some of the contributions of Deputies but I will not be able to do them all justice right now, and I think we can address them better on Committee Stage.

One general question was why are we legislating in this emergency way. Our general direction of travel on climate action is towards an electrification of society. We are moving towards our transport being electrically powered, both public and private transport, and moving towards our homes being powered by electricity because heat pumps are powered by electricity. We are moving towards a general electrification of everything and at the same time a reduction in use and in demand wherever we can through a circular economy. That means more electricity. This Government has decided to move faster towards our emission cuts, which means more electricity towards 2030.

However, anyone who has travelled around the world in the past few years without going very far will have noticed, including just north of the Border, solar panels on roofs, in Wales offshore wind turbines on the horizon and in Germany anaerobic digesters in every village. One might wonder why that is not happening here. It did not happen here for the last decade so here we are. We are where we are. What has to be done now is to legislate for this. There will be an independent review into the reasons we are in this situation. That said, there are some direct questions about these new generators that I will quickly address. How are they to be powered? They will likely be powered by a combination of gas or distillate although that has not been specified. Are they to be used all the time as general generation? They will not. They are intended to be used as a last resort. They are peaking power to be used on a day when there is no wind or a number of generators have gone down for whatever reason and these are needed in an emergency. That is their intended purpose. What will happen to them afterwards? They will be sold and removed from the grid. What is the source of the €350 million? That money will be added as a supplementary estimate to the budget to Vote 29 this year which will have to be voted on by the Oireachtas. It will be used for upfront capital costs to EirGrid.

My overarching message is that it is critical that the provisions in this Bill are put in place before the summer recess to ensure security of supply and to provide a PSO credit to electricity customers. I seek the support of the House to achieve that. I appreciate the supportive comments from Sinn Féin earlier. It is a matter of serious concern to the Government that recent electricity and gas price increases caused by international conditions are putting increasing pressure on consumers, especially those in a more vulnerable economic position. I appreciate the important points that Deputies have made on the pressure being felt by many households from the rise in the cost of living. It is important to see the PSO credited as a benefit provision in this Bill as one of a suite of measures being taken by Government.

The provisions to enable EirGrid to deliver on the CRU’s direction to procure about 450 MW of temporary generation capacity are vital to the secure supply of electricity for the coming years. I seek the support of the House to deliver these provisions. The Government is determined to act quickly to help people further with these high energy prices. It is worth restating the purpose of the Bill as well as the operation of the emergency measures. The Bill provides for the CRU to direct that the PSO for the coming PSO year can be credited as a benefit to electricity customers. It also provides for EirGrid to purchase temporary backup generation units and to negotiate with generators to deliver this backup capacity over the coming years to bridge the gap in our transition to an electricity grid which comprises up to 80% renewable energy by 2030. In general I appreciate the support of Deputies across the House in this. It is a practical thing. It is emergency legislation and I look forward to continuing in more detail to answer Deputies' questions on Committee Stage.

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