Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We have a lot of electricity generation, distribution, transmission and the future of renewable generation being built by State-owned entities. At the same time there are also some private entities involved.

Bord na Móna is going to try to build a wind farm off the coast of Dún Laoghaire and Wicklow. I hope it succeeds. I will be working through the process and seeing what is the best way it can be done. I certainly will not be opposing it. The Deputy will not find me at residents' association meetings around the county telling people who live in Playboy mansions on the hills of Dalkey and Killiney that I will protect them from the horror of being able to see a wind farm in the distance on the horizon.

Deputy Paul Murphy also mentioned that there are excess deaths in the winter. One of the reasons for those excess deaths is respiratory illness, which gets worse in winter. On average, 10% of deaths in Ireland are due to respiratory illness. It is a much higher rate than in the rest of Europe and one of the reasons for that is air quality. I really believe the solid fuel regulations that came in last month and that were opposed with a massive campaign of disinformation are going to have a dramatic effect. They ban the use of smoky fuels across the whole of Ireland. Towns like Enniscorthy and towns that have been blighted by poor air quality, which has led to people dying in those towns, will get the benefit and many lives will be saved as a result. I am proud those regulations went through and that they went through the right process. I am dismayed they were opposed with disinformation.

I appreciate the Deputies' concern, which of course I share, about significant increases in the price of wholesale gas. They have led to an unprecedented rise in energy prices which has put financial strain on households and businesses in Ireland and across Europe. There has been a massive increase in the wholesale price of gas. Ireland has a dependency on gas for the generation of electricity, as does much of Europe, and for heating our homes. That dependency has led to a massive increase in the cost of electricity and gas. That is caused by Russia invading Ukraine. We have to be really clear about this. The constraints on the supply of gas started before the invasion. At that stage Putin was already using the supply of energy as a tool of war. The purpose of restraining that supply is to put psychological pressure on Europe to try to carry out a hybrid war on European countries and sow division, to create pressure on Europe not to support Ukraine. It is not going to work. We are going to continue to support the Ukrainian people and Ukraine. Although it is obviously causing stress across Europe, we are going to cope with that. I am not one of those people who would accuse People Before Profit of being in league with the Russians or supporting Putin. The Deputies have fairly consistently not supported Putin or the tyranny of what is not a communist state. It is really a form of state capitalism.

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