Cathal Berry (Kildare South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Shanahan. I thank the Minister of State for his opening statement. I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the Bill. I share the concerns that have been articulated and echo them. This is not the way to do business and I think both the Minister of State and the Minister will appreciate that. There is little time for debate or scrutiny when a Bill is due to be guillotined. We are being asked to set aside important planning legislation and environmental assessments. It reeks of a certain degree of chaos on the Government benches. This is not the way to do business in government. The State should be run in a smooth and composed fashion but I do not see this judging by the activities this evening.

That said, I recognise the context of the war in Ukraine, and while it is not directly linked to what is going on in this country, there is an issue relating to energy security and gas supplies. We have gas-fired energy plants here and it is important we have an alternative source available for backup if required. There is also a mismatch between supply and demand in regard to energy. I appreciate that context and recognise the fact these two generators, with an additional 400 MW, are for backup only and will be used only from a backup perspective, or so we are told.

In my brief remaining time, I will ask a few questions and the Minister or the Minister of State might be kind enough to address them in their closing remarks, for which I will yield some of my time. There was mention of diesel fuel being used. Is that the fuel that will be used to fire these two generators?

A cost of €350 million was floated. Is that an accurate ballpark figure? Who is going to pay the €350 million if it is indeed the cost? Is it going to come directly from the State or will a levy be put on electricity bills throughout the country? Tarbert and Shannonbridge were mentioned specifically. It is ironic we only recently shut Shannonbridge and now it looks as though, like Lazarus, it will be brought back to life. Looking at it from a positive perspective, does either the Minister or the Minister of State have any idea as to whether additional employment will be brought to Shannonbridge, and Tarbert in particular, because of this?

Most important, what is the Minister's assessment of whether this will actually work and plug the gap, or whether we will be back here this time next year trying to ram through more emergency legislation?

I recognise the imperfections of the Bill and of this process. However, being a responsible member of the Opposition, I want to keep the lights on and, on that basis, I will not oppose the Bill. Nevertheless, I will look in great detail at the amendments with a view to strengthening the legislation and take it from there.

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