James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have competition for the position of baby of the House this evening. I welcome Deputy Whitmore's family and their friend to the House. It is fantastic to see young people having an interest in politics.

I welcome the Minister back to the House. Obviously, he was undertaking important Government business elsewhere. We are here to discuss the extremely serious issue of Ireland's energy supply. Unfortunately, the ten minutes I have been allocated are not enough to go through the issues in that regard.

One problem is that there is an ideological difference within the Government in respect of the best solution to this problem. As a person in my 20s who, I hope, will live a long life, I can comment on what the future will look like when it comes to the climate and the environment, but I understand that we have a lot of work to do to make the transition to green energy possible and to do so in a sustainable way while trying to get there as quickly as we can. In saying that, however, there needs to be a recognition that gas is an exceptionally important fossil fuel. It is immensely consequential to power generation in this country but, as a country, we are hooked on international sources to supply our gas. I find it hypocritical that, as a State, we are happy to import fossil fuels from dictatorships and autocratic governments around the world but, when it comes to our own supply of energy, we are not granting licences at the rate we should be, given the crisis - not an emergency but a crisis - we could encounter in the coming months. Despite some of the commentary on this issue, the environmental ramifications of that issue have not been fully taken into account.

I come from an agricultural background. Every litre of milk that comes from cows in this country to be processed for skimmed milk powder for export is brought to driers, all of which are gas-powered. Industry that provides hundreds of thousands of jobs in this country is heavily reliant on gas. As a country, we are not allowing the exploration of existing gasfields or issuing licences for new test wells to be drilled to establish what is off the shores of this island. I appeal to the Minister to find the good sense to tackle this issue. I am dumbfounded as to why it has not been done already. We need to think about what could happen if there is a crisis on the Continent over a lack of gas supply because, although there is strong camaraderie within the European Union, when it comes to supply we are competing against some of the most industrial economies in the world. They do not have the potential security of supply that Ireland could have if the Government were proactive about exploring what is off our shores when it comes to gas. This is the great risk. I do not want to fail to express this concern today when there is the potential for a major crisis to erupt two years or two months from now, possibly as a result of an exceptionally cold winter in Europe, with resulting strong demand for gas for heating in addition to the manufacturing needs of economies such as Germany and other strong industrial economies on the Continent. In such a situation, Ireland could be left high and dry. We are connected to the gas network of the United Kingdom but, from my perspective, it is just not good enough that we are not making best efforts to establish what is off the shores of the country.

What also needs to be called out is the utter hypocrisy of some of what has been included in the Government review about the potential use of the Kinsale gas field for gas storage. Are we now saying we are fine with gas being brought in from abroad and stored by being pumped into the ground but are not happy to allow a licence for exploration for gas 30 or 40 nautical miles east or west of the existing gas field to be granted? I would like the Minister to give some thought to that and respond to me on it in writing. It is something that had to be said.

There are so many energy issues that do not make sense, given the crisis in which we find ourselves. In terms of industry, for example, people are crying out in Cork for the installation of private energy infrastructure for energy generation on site. This is particularly the case when it comes to renewables but ESB Networks is tying itself up in regulatory knots. In my view, this suits the company from a revenue point of view, when it comes to the provision of private wire. It is my understanding that there are only six weeks in the year when it accepts applications for that system. I know the Minister is working on this but quite frankly, if we end up in a situation where we have blackouts - please God, that will not happen and I know work is being done to try to avert that - then the CEO and senior management of ESB Networks will have exceptionally serious questions to answer. I want to warn them that the Oireachtas, if it has good sense, will pursue this particular issue. It is absolutely unacceptable in this day and age, when we have so much discussion about and potential investment in renewables that the network operators of our electricity grid, EirGrid and ESB Networks, are not allowing ease of access for those who want to put in place their own energy generation systems on site. I refer to what are described as large energy users, LEUs.

In terms of the demands on the grid, we have to understand that as time goes on, the demand for energy is probably going to continue to grow. We have a growing economy and population. In that context, the current rate of progress with regard to offshore wind is not in any way acceptable. I am very hopeful and am putting a lot of faith in the review into ways to improve the planning process in this country that is due to be published by the Attorney General . It is absolutely essential that we deal with the ongoing issues when it comes to the granting of permission for offshore wind projects in this country. In this century, it is possibly one of the greatest economic opportunities for the State to invest in. We were world leaders in this area during the Celtic tiger period but have slipped dramatically down the rankings as the years have passed. We have watched other countries grow and expand their offshore industry, which could potentially contribute billions of euro to the economy.

I also want to call into question the status of the EirGrid interconnector. The need for such an interconnector has been discussed at length for more than three years. I want to make an observation rather than a criticism. After all, we are in a Chamber where debate and free speech is welcome. We have heard some strong contributions from the Opposition today criticising the Government about a lack of energy generation in this country. However, the point must be made that the main Opposition party had many activists involved in protests against the establishment of the Corrib gas field ten or 15 years ago.

I ask Government to take a look at different sectors and identify what it can do to improve their circumstances. It must also deal with the backlog at ESB Networks which is not providing enough private wire for the provision of on-site renewable energy generation by LEUs. That must be dealt with urgently. I also want to very clearly communicate to the Department that the unknown blockage when it comes to the granting of licences for exploration for gas off our shores needs to be dealt with because it is quite hypocritical that we are happy to import gas from abroad but not to drill for it off our own shores. From a security point of view, we are putting our economy and society at risk by not doing so. I speak from the perspective of short to medium term solutions to the problems facing us, including growing political instability across the world. I fully believe that one day we will achieve our targets for reductions in the use of fossil fuels in this country but we have to be realistic about the process of getting there. What I see at the moment, I do not like. Industry is furious. People working in renewable energy companies are sharply critical of the slow pace of development in Ireland. There is a serious urgency around the planning reforms that will be published next week. I hope the Minister has been engaging diligently with the Attorney General on this work and that we will see further work being done to expedite the process, in addition to some of the steps that have been taken already.

I also want to acknowledge the fantastic work that was done through the budget to relieve some of the pressure on people and on business. Small businesses, in particular, are under extraordinary pressure. The household credit of €600 will make a difference to households this year but I also want to make the case for businesses like supermarkets and butchers, some of whom have contacted me in the past few days. They would have quite large energy bills and, in some cases, their bills are well in excess of €100,000 per annum. They have seen drastic increases in the cost of gas and electricity and their profit margins have been utterly destroyed. We need to be very mindful of the knock-on consequences and damage this could cause, particularly in rural Ireland where the situation for business and enterprise is already quite delicate.

I would appreciate the Minister responding to me on these issues.

See this speech in context