Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to discuss this matter. Like my colleagues, however, I have concerns about the amount of time allocated for the debate and the process that has been followed. Unfortunately, it seems to be the go-to solution for this Government that whenever anything difficult or controversial or there are things it wants to do quickly that it undermines good governance by seeking to bypass pre-legislative scrutiny. The information given to the joint committees are given literally before meetings are held; there is not sufficient discussion and the guillotine is used in the debate. While I understand that that is required in some instances, it seems to be used consistently by the Government, particularly around issues of energy. This is the second time that we have debated an emergency electricity Bill this year. The first time was the EirGrid, Electricity and Turf (Amendment) Bill in June. Why was it that this Bill and its amendments were not included then? Because this Bill is to implement many of the emergency measures that were introduced in June-July. Whether it was the Department, the Government, the CRU or EirGrid was the key driver behind the initial Bill, how was there not the foresight in June to incorporate these provisions? That really concerns me if we are expecting the same entities to plan our electricity and energy grid into the future for the next ten, 20 or 30 years if they cannot even think three or four months ahead.

The Minister of State’s speech was peppered with words like “emergency”, “extraordinary”, “unprecedented”. That is done to create the illusion that there was no option here. That is not only for us in this Chamber but also because the Government will have to go to Europe and convince it that there is an exceptional reason why this Government wants to exempt itself from undertaking environmental assessments that are due on a development such as this.

The Bill will exempt the need to undertake those environmental assessments. I have some specifical concerns about the Bill. First, I do not believe that it should reference Ukraine. The Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications has been very clear throughout the last year that there are two very separate issues at play when it comes to Ireland’s energy: security, which is a planning issue, and pricing which has been impacted by Ukraine. Those two issues have been very separately discussed by the Minister and he has been at pains to separate them. Yet, when it comes to this emergency Bill, we see that Ukraine is included in the Long Title. I wonder if that is an attempt to convince Europe that this measure and this exemption are necessary.

It is the case that member states can exempt specific projects from Article 2(4), which means that we will not need an environmental impact assessment under the Planning Acts. I want to raise a couple of things on that. Exceptional case is interpreted very narrowly by Europe. It can include issues of energy security but it must be where it is impracticable or impossible to achieve the purposes of the project that the state is trying to exempt. Again, I question whether this Bill has been left until the eleventh hour because the Government wants to use this clause. The Government could have brought it forward earlier in the year. It could have got through the proper environmental assessment at that point. I do wonder whether this was a purposeful omission.

I wonder whether the Government is trying to get around environmental scrutiny.

I have a concern in respect of which I have tabled an amendment. The provision is very open-ended. The Minister of State said the measure is for 450 MW of generation. He referred to two sites but then said "and other sites". That essentially a gives carte blancheto the Government to generate wherever it wants without applying the environmental provisions of the planning Act. This gives a huge amount of power. I question whether it is really within the realm of Article 2(4), which entails exempting specific projects on a case-by-case basis and which is not even project wide in scope. The Minister of State will therefore have a great deal of difficulty explaining to Europe the need to have such an open-ended provision. That is why I have tabled my amendment. I hope the Minister of State will take it on board. Saying we have an emergency and that if the two sites for potential generation do not work out, the measure can be applied to any other site is not acceptable. I do not believe Europe would view that as acceptable and I do not believe it would fall within the provisions of Article 2(4).

There are some issues with this. I agree with my colleague that the Government has put people in opposition in a very difficult position in this regard. None of us wants to see blackouts or brownouts. However, because of the Government’s failure to plan, take control and drive an energy system that is secure, we are expected to support provisions that we could never agree to in normal circumstances. The Minister of State said in his speech that the factors affecting the security of electricity supply in Ireland are our geographical location, low levels of interconnection, fossil fuel dependency and the small scale of the market. He also stated the shortfall was identified in September 2021 in EirGrid's All-Island Generation Capacity Statement. These are not the reasons we have a security-of-supply issue in Ireland. The reason we have risk when it comes to security of supply is that the Government has not implemented what needs to be implemented or delivered a secure grid. My point concerns not only the current Government but also previous ones because EirGrid has been ringing the alarm bell on this since 2017. It is not a new phenomenon; it has been highlighted year in, year out since 2017. Not only has implementation not happened and not only has the grid has not been made secure but there have been no curbs on demand. The Government has allowed exponential growth in electricity demand, primarily through the development of large data centres. At no stage did the Government think that since our grid is weak, we cannot meet the demand and need to start curbing it. That is why we are in the situation we are in. We are not here because of Ukraine or because Ireland is a small country with a small electricity market; we are here because the CRU, EirGrid and the Government have not between them managed to develop and maintain a proper, functioning electricity grid worthy of a developed country. Owing to that, communities and businesses are facing potential blackouts and the Government's rushing through of emergency legislation is doing us enormous damage internationally. The Government needs to be cognisant of that and ensure every effort is made to ensure our grid and supply will be reliable and that our lights will be kept on this winter and in future winters.

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