Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak for the Labour Party on the Environmental Protection Agency (Emergency Electricity Generation) (Amendment) Bill 2023. Our party whip, Deputy Duncan Smith, has already expressed frustration at the fact the progress of this and other legislation relating to energy has been compressed into such a short timeframe. Indeed, during the debate on the Development (Emergency Electricity Generation) Act 2022, I expressed frustration at the tight timeframe in which we were expected to submit amendments and deal with legislation on such an important issue as the security of energy crisis. This is a technical Bill and one of a series, an overall legislative package, as the Minister has said, required to facilitate delivery of 450 MW of temporary emergency generation capacity. It is essentially an emergency Bill and a technical Bill enabling due consultation by the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, on licence applications relating to temporary emergency generation in the context of ensuring we mitigate the security of supply risk for winter of 2023-2024 and subsequent years. However, we will be forgiven for feeling this is like Groundhog Day and that a similar approach was taken to the winter we are still coming through.

This Bill will further assist with allowing for works at Shannonbridge and Tarbert generating stations. In that context, we accept the need for quick legislative progress and will not be opposing the Bill. However, as I have said, we are concerned about the process and the fact this is just one of a series of Bills introducing emergency measures to ensure the security of energy supply. That is not good enough as a way of planning an energy policy. The nature of this series of Bills raises serious questions about failures in Government energy policy, failures in planning and the circumstances that have led us to a point at which we need to pass such emergency legislation again this year to secure energy supply not even for the long term but for the immediate future, the winter just ahead in 2023-2024. It also raises questions about how we can achieve the necessary steps to ensure we make the transition to renewable energy sources and a net-zero future. We are all conscious that a review of our energy security, led by Dermot McCarthy, is under way. I hope, and I am sure Government hopes, this review will lead us to a place where we can ensure more coherent long-term planning of energy security.

It also has to be said we are debating this Bill in the context of an energy cost crisis. A great many households and individuals are contacting all of us because they are seeing massive increases in their energy bills, both for electricity and gas. This is feeding into a cost-of-living crisis for a great many squeezed households. Last week, I raised with the Taoiseach the fact that Electric Ireland had passed on the reduction in wholesale prices to business customers but not to households. The reasoning we were all given seemed somewhat spurious. We were told there was more of a delay in passing on cost decreases to households because of hedging policies. That seems extraordinary. I was reassured to hear the Taoiseach say in response to me that the Government will be introducing a windfall tax on the profits of energy companies, but we have been given no timeframe for that legislation. We have been looking for this for some time now. We in the Labour Party and other Opposition parties have been calling for a windfall tax. There would be support from the Opposition for the introduction of such a tax. The proceeds could help to alleviate bills for households. It is a source of frustration to all of us that we have been given no clear timeline for Government, although the Taoiseach committed to the introduction of such a tax last week, which is welcome.

Our concern is we may be back here again in another few months for another emergency Bill if long-term issues around energy security are not addressed. We have seen the briefing note provided to us. It says all potential options under the conventional planning processes have been ruled out as they would not enable delivery of the necessary emergency capacity within the limited timeframe. However, one must ask why this is so and why we have not by now put in place better capacity in the system. Thinking of the Derrybrien wind farm, we know that failure to comply with EU environmental laws can have serious consequences for planning security of supply. It is concerning that the State now appears to be reliant on exceptional and emergency measures to ensure security of supply for the winter ahead and future winters.

I believe we would all accept this situation is the result of a flawed and failed electricity supply market and I believe there is agreement and acceptance that, where markets fail, it is incumbent on the State to step in to address that failure. However, this stepping in and this State intervention should happen in a more structured and strategic way rather than through a series of last-minute or emergency Bills.

Why are we in this situation in the first place? It is because of a failure over successive years to scale up storage capacity. I have written to the Minister about this before and have raised it in the Dáil. It is also about a failure to scale up renewable energy and the ongoing failure to bring on capacity to generate wind energy offshore. We in the Opposition supported the introduction of the Marine Area Regulatory Authority, MARA, infrastructure and the new planning model to speed up the development of offshore wind capacity. There is immense frustration among stakeholders in the wind generation sector at the slow pace at which we are seeing offshore wind being developed. However, as the Minister himself has said, it could be a game changer for Ireland's energy supply. In that context, we in the Opposition have also raised issues around the data centre strategy and have sought to establish the Government's policy in respect of data centres. Is it going to listen to calls from the Opposition for a moratorium? We are conscious of the very significant impact data centres have on energy usage in this country.

The electricity sector has a central role to play in combating climate change, which is clear from the Government's climate action plan and from international plans, but achieving our emissions reduction targets will involve putting much more electricity from renewable sources on the grid. That will arise, especially from generation through using offshore wind capacity. It is regrettable that Ireland's emissions increased again last year and that we are now purchasing 4.1 million credits from Slovakia to help meet our 2020 carbon emissions target at a cost, I understand, of €2.9 million. This is an extraordinary sum and it is a false economy not to invest, therefore, in our own infrastructure. The State is losing money through failing to meet our legal obligations and we are wasting money by having flimsy energy infrastructure and by failing to have planned for the future.

Importantly, there is also a huge social cost to people who worry we will see blackouts over the winter ahead or who worry they will not be able to afford their own heating bills as they see these astronomical rises. We are seeing these concerns. People approach us, not only because they have received a bill with a big increase but also because of their fears about future increases to come and about the failures of energy companies to pass on wholesale reductions to them. There is a huge social cost. It generates fear among many households. They are fearful because of price-gouging providers. They are fearful our creaking energy infrastructure will not manage. That is why it is crucial we see development of large-scale capacity to store electricity, particularly as we move towards bringing on greater capacity to generate through offshore wind.

I will speak a little more about Mr. Dermot McCarthy's energy security review. Others have sought clarity as to when that will be produced and when we will see it published. My question is how we will go about seeing the recommendations likely to be in the report implemented in a measured and structured way? How will we see a coherent longer term strategy adopted by Government which will mean we will not need to be back before the House with yet more emergency legislation to guarantee energy security over this coming winter and other winters ahead? We need to hear more about that more long-term vision. The Minister's speech focused of necessity on this Bill, on the measures it contains and on those emergency measures necessary to see us through the winter ahead. As I say, my party is not opposing the Bill. However, we also need that bigger debate about where we will see energy security policy going, that focus on offshore wind, bringing on more renewables, a data centre policy, and a clear account from Government as to how we will guarantee energy security while meeting our necessary climate emissions targets.

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