Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is a line I have used before. Sometimes when everyone else has spoken, you are just repeating what they have said, only not quite as eloquently. It has all been said. We have seen an abject failure to ensure we have sufficient capacity to generate the electricity we will require. A huge number of people became scared over the summer when they heard of amber alerts and that we had not done the due diligence in respect of the gas generators in particular. Deputy O'Rourke and others spoke about the fact that we had to change the legislation so we could attempt to rectify some of that, but it is a shambles. The problem with this is that it is happening at the same time as we have an energy crisis in respect of supply and cost. Yes, very much of that relates to Vladimir Putin at this point in time, but until the western world and the European Union get their act together sufficiently quickly, and until the Irish Government plays its part, this is the biggest weapon Vladimir Putin has outside of the threats he has made to escalate the situation, and that really needs to be dealt with.

It is fair to say the Government is very late to the game regarding decoupling electricity prices from gas prices, which are through the roof at this time. I get that the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has moved into this sphere to some degree. I can only imagine that the reason for the lateness was the general belief that the prices would not necessarily reach the levels they have reached - I am not sure how that could have been the case - and that a huge amount of money would have been pumped back into renewables.

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