Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

To be fair, there is a wide range of suggestions from the Opposition and there are interesting points across the spectrum. The general criticism I have of the Opposition response is that while the Government is struggling with this crisis, as governments all over the world are, and the Opposition cannot be expected to come up with answers, an acknowledgment at least of how complex this situation is would be useful for the public. It is incredibly complex.

The issue of decoupling electricity and gas was never mentioned in this Dáil until relatively recently and is an issue under consideration at EU level. The Union, contrary to what Deputy McNamara says, is not Ursula von der Leyen telling us what to do but is instead, especially where energy is concerned, all the governments working together to get the best solution for every European citizen. That means getting the best price for energy. Decoupling is something we would like to see but that cannot just be brought in today because that could completely disrupt the energy markets and lead to the type of energy insecurity the Opposition is talking about at a much greater scale.

There are two major contexts to this crisis. They have been fleetingly referenced by those on the Opposition benches. One is climate change, and we know some members of the rural alliance will just dismiss that argument completely-----

See this speech in context