Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister does not want turf or gas. God only knows what he wants. The Government Deputies themselves certainly do not know. Every day since the Government closed down Bord na Móna, the cost of electricity has gone up. The Government has sabotaged the country. It has left the people not sure whether they will have electricity despite the savage bills they are paying. Old women are afraid to boil the kettle at present because they are afraid they will cause a strain on the electricity grid.

Like Deputy Mattie McGrath said, the Government is thinking about pouring concrete into the pipeline at Kinsale. We will need gas for many years. The wind does not blow all the time. No matter how many more turbines are put up, the wind does not blow all the time. We will need gas into the medium to long-term future because the Government will not even keep the turf generation stations it closed down. The Minister talks about just transition. There was no just transition. The Minister closed those stations down the minute he got power.

It was a sad day for the people of the country when the Minister became part of the Government. I have no bother in the world in telling him this because he has blackguarded the people with the way he is carrying on, charging them any amount for electricity and talking about coming back with a windfall tax. Where is the regulator? Why does it not control what companies are charging? Now, we hear the Minister is going to bring jet engines, something he knows an awful lot about, of course. They are not going to be running on fossil fuels at all but aviation fuel. What are the emissions going to be out of that?

Does the Minister realise that, back in the 1930s or 1920s, the one ambition of Éamon de Valera and the first Taoiseach was to be self-sufficient. Where are we now? We have our fingers stuck inside every other fellow's mouth all over the world. Even as late as last year, we were buying coal from Putin to keep Moneypoint power station going and the Government thought people would not find out. That is what they are doing, however. The Government has no respect or regard for the people it is representing.

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