Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Tóibín. I welcome the opportunity to speak about the very worrying energy situation. I thank my colleagues and, Cáit Nic Amhlaoibh, our co-ordinator, for organising this debate.

Unfortunately, there were signs of this energy crisis emerging before any blame could be given to Putin for his invasion of Ukraine. We must look closer to home, at some of the failings of the Government, which have left us ever more exposed to the impact of the international energy disruption. In October 2007, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, who was then Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, warned us that 85% of Ireland's gas and oil was imported. He said:

This reliance on imported fuels from areas of the world that are geopolitically volatile contributes to price instability and vulnerability in Ireland. New domestic sources of oil and gas would ease the pressure.

He also said:

Ireland's oil and gas is a resource of the people. I want to ensure that our waters are fully explored and that we get a proper return to the State.

Even in 2007, there were reports of Russia threatening to cut off supplies to Ukraine. Fourteen years ago, the Minister was aware there was a need for domestic energy security and exploration, yet, in recent weeks, he has said he was taken by surprise by what has happened.

What action did he take in response? Aided and abetted by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, he introduced legislation to ban gas storage infrastructure from being built and he banned the issuing of new exploration licences. The Government is continuing on a path that makes our energy security even more perilous. It has created two types of problems. One is the short-term cost of energy, which is going to decimate businesses and put many households under serious pressure to pay their bills. The other problem is energy security in the long term. Reliable supply and as much homemade generation as possible should help to keep prices stable, but where is it? We had 14 years to prepare.

The short-term problems must be addressed now. In this motion, we call for energy support schemes for businesses and a ban on any threat to turn off the electricity supply to domestic customers and critical social infrastructure such as hospitals, schools and nursing homes. While those protections are in place, we need to start addressing the long-term supply issues. The current crisis surely necessitates a review of the path we are on with regard to energy. The Government must admit these problems have been caused in part by pursuing foolhardy policies that promoted moves away from fossil fuels before alternative supplies were secured. The Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act sets the target of a climate-neutral economy by no later than the end of 2050. Unless this is revised, we will spend the next 28 years implementing damaging policy after damaging policy in an attempt to meet this unattainable target and paying massive fines to the EU for the privilege. We are simply not ready to move away from the traditional energy sources just yet. Surely the alternative should be fully ready and available before we try to abandon the sources on which we rely.

As stated in the motion, the national grid has come under increasing pressure since the start of this decade, with a spike in the number of amber alerts, which has gone from 13 in the past decade to 17 already in the two years of this decade. I received correspondence recently from a constituent who runs a successful retail business. That correspondence displays clearly how unprepared and disorganised we are when it comes to moving towards renewables. He states in his email:

We have looked to try and install solar panels to reduce costs but the system in place is making this very difficult because of the following. We would need to install a 150 kW system for the site. Currently, you need planning above an 11 kW system. The system would create an overall supply at certain times of the day and then this would spill back onto the grid - a positive for the grid but not for us as currently a system under 50 kW will get paid for anything passed to the grid but, over 50 kW, the grid takes it for free. The cost of installing the system is €170,000 and would cut my dependency on the grid in half but the upfront cost is difficult to raise. The grants for these systems are very low. The above system for our premises would get no grant. The other option is solar and a battery system but the cost of these is not affordable to my business.

Here we have a business owner who is willing to move to renewables and cut his reliance on the grid in half. He would even be in a position to sell back power to the grid. However, he and many like him are being put off moving to renewables by this cumbersome and prohibitive system. We have these great plans to achieve net zero by 2050 but we do not even have the basics right.

Not having the basics right and refusing to look at them in planning is how we have ended up with a housing crisis, while not addressing employment issues in the health profession is how we have ended up with a health crisis. Now, we have an energy crisis. At what point will we learn from experience?

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