Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is ironic. Such is the curtailed nature of this whole debate, the Minister of State cannot deliver the most basic of remarks reflecting the contents of the Bill within the guillotined time he has.

Perhaps the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, knows how we feel on this side of the House on so many occasions when it comes to legislation and emergency legislation from the Minister.

This is yet more emergency legislation that is being rushed through by the Government due to the unmitigated failure to manage our electricity demand and supply. It is quite remarkable that we are now being asked to completely set aside important planning and environmental conditions for the installation of 450 MW of power generators. In effect, it is more than a topical issue; I would say that it is a national scandal.

At the outset, I must state my discomfort about bypassing the planning and environmental impact assessment process, as that brings with it obvious risks. In truth, it is an invidious position for the Opposition. This Government has walked the State to the cliff edge when it comes to energy security, electricity supply, and the risk of blackouts. As a result, we urgently need backup generators put in place to try to help keep the lights on in the coming winters. This is acknowledged and we will be responsible in our opposition.

As I have said before with regard to previous legislation and it also applies to this proposed legislation, this is no way to do scrutiny and is no way to do legislation. The Bill received no pre-legislative scrutiny and is being rushed through all Stages in one day. It is curtailed in a way that is far more extreme than we are used to, such is the nature of it. It is a dreadful approach. It is the wrong approach. I would imagine that it is, at least in part, related to the absolute chaos and frantic goings on within the Department and within the Ministry.

The Bill seeks to set aside normal planning and environmental requirements to allow emergency electricity generators to be installed quickly at two existing power plants, Shannonbridge and Tarbert, or at some as yet unidentified place, for operation in the coming winters. Despite the fact that Ukraine is referenced in the Title, we do not need these generators because we have just run out of gas due to that dreadful war. We do not need them because the shipments of oil have stopped. We need these extra generators because of the spectacular mismanagement of our electricity supply and demand over the past number of years. Successive Governments, the CRU, and EirGrid all share some responsibility for this failure. We simply do not have enough generation capacity to meet the growing electricity demand. This is despite repeated warnings over a number of years about the growing shortfall. Again, this is unrelated to the conflict in Ukraine. The Government should take responsibility for its failures in this area and not try and hide behind other external factors.

Last June, when we were dealing with another emergency item of legislation, the EirGrid, Electricity and Turf (Amendment) Act, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, told us he had appointed the former Secretary General at the Department of the Taoiseach, Dermot McCarthy, to undertake a review of how we ended up in this crisis. That is appropriate. Will the Minister provide an update on the status of this review? When will the review be completed and will he publish it in full? Will there be accountability up to and including ministerial level and the agencies?

We do not need to wait for the McCarthy review to tell us some of the contributory factors. EirGrid has said that since 2016, its generation capacity statements have warned of an increasing tightness between demand and supply. In addition, EirGrid issued 18 amber alerts since 2017, with 17 of these since this Government took office in 2020. These were all flashing red lights that went unheeded.

All the while, it was full steam ahead for the rampant increase on the demand side and especially in the expansion of data centres. The policy was to make Ireland the data centre capital of the world. We all recognise the role data centres play in a digitised society but it was reckless in the extreme to pursue this approach so vigorously when our offshore wind generation was non-existent, when power plants were ageing and being wound down and when there were clear warnings about the increasing tightness between demand and supply. In truth, the State and the Government could have brought forward this legislation 12 months ago, but it did not. It was conscious Government choices that contributed to the current situation.

Another contributory factor to this current situation was the Government’s failure to develop our offshore wind over the past decade. Along with others, I was in Scotland recently, visiting the Moray East offshore wind farm and I witnessed at first hand how far ahead of us they are, specifically due to choices they made in recent years. The Fine Gael Administrations that we have had here over the past decade wasted a huge opportunity to exploit our massive offshore wind potential over this time. It was a lack of vision, whether it was for offshore, onshore or solar. It was a lack of vision and a lack of foresight. To put it simply, they failed the people of Ireland. As a result, we are still hugely reliant on imported energy and are now required, in a climate emergency, to continue to build more fossil fuel infrastructure to help meet our basic electricity demands. If we had developed just a fraction of our offshore wind potential by now or if we had expanded our onshore or solar generation, we would not need to procure this new capacity at this scale and in this way with expensive diesel generators. Instead, we could have relied on existing infrastructure or less demand.

Will the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, outline for how long these generators will be in place? We are aware that these generators will be in place until 2027 but perhaps a Minister of State will outline the process for decommissioning them or for moving them on. This issue was raised at a previous stage but during their operation, who exactly will own the generators when they are operating and afterwards? How will that structure work? This question had been raised, in fairness, from the Government and from the Opposition at various Stages of the passage of the recent EirGrid, Electricity and Turf (Amendment) Bill. This issue still needs to be addressed. Will the Minister of State outline how these facilities and generators will be procured, what will be the ownership structure for them, how will they be sold on and what will be the terms of that? There is a real concern that we will roll forward a number of years to 2027 and having spent €350 million, which is a huge amount of taxpayers' money, they would be sold off for a song or that some private entity will reap the huge rewards of that. What protections are there for the taxpayers' €350 million?

During the debate on the EirGrid, Electricity and Turf (Amendment) Bill, a question arose about the charge that would be added to ordinary household electricity bills to help to cover the €350 million cost. The Minister did not have a specific figure at that time. Will the Minister of State confirm how much this procurement process will add to ordinary people's bills to cover the cost of the 450 MW? A figure of €40 was speculated on but is that figure confirmed? It is clear now that it is not €200 million and that it will be €350 million.

In the last minute I have to speak I will touch on some of the amendments that Sinn Féin has submitted. We will have even less time to discuss those later on. The first is a concern that is shared by many others and it came up at the very short briefing we had with the Department on this. It concerns the text "or at alternative appropriate sites". I believe that this is far too vague. I question whether it is consistent with the provisions of the directive. It certainly leaves it very loose.

We also have an important amendment, and I hope the Minister of State will support it, to require a report to be laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas following a post-enactment review. This is unprecedented legislation. It gives huge powers and sidesteps significant protections for communities. It should not be done lightly. There should be a review and it should be laid before the Houses.

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