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

While the Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023 may appear on the surface to be another routine technical Bill, it harbours a disconcerting truth regarding Ireland's energy security, one that should keep us awake at night. This Bill sets in motion the transfer of all responsibilities related to the national gas infrastructure from Ervia, the current overseeing entity, to a newly formed publicly owned body, namely, Gas Networks Ireland. Though this transition might seem benign, it is inextricably linked to a larger more ominous issue, which is the Government's puzzling reluctance to fully support the Shannon LNG gas facility.

Let us be crystal clear. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have deceived and sabotaged the Irish public with their energy policy. Their fingerprints are all over the sabotage of the Shannon LNG project. The evidence is undeniable. The Government removed the Shannon LNG terminal from the EU projects of common interest list in 2021. It did so before An Bord Pleanála even had a sniff at the planning application. Imagine making a move to kill the project long before it could even see the light of day. This display of political manipulation is frightening and makes it clear that this action was in direct contradiction of the previous government's policy in 2020. I remind the Minister of State that in 2016, I ensured provision of an LNG facility at that land bank in Ballylongford was included in the programme for Government. Unfortunately, this Government, to be honest, ably assisted by the Minister of State and his party, ensured it was taken out. It is all laid out on page 36 of the current programme for Government signed by none other than Micheál Martin and Leo Varadkar.

This is the same Micheál Martin who went to north Kerry to canvass before the most recent election. He went to Ballylongford, Tarbert, Moyvane, Knockanure, Listowel and everywhere and told them all he was with them. He said he would deliver for north Kerry through supporting the Shannon LNG facility, revitalising all these communities, putting people living in all these houses, having work for everybody, and that there would be great prosperity. The minute the election was over and his candidate was landed home, he forgot about Knockanure, Kilmoyly and everywhere. He forgot about all of north Kerry, Limerick, Clare, and east, south and west Kerry. He left us all go to hell. He left us high and dry because he finished up with his prize, which was being Taoiseach and then Tánaiste.

It is written in black and white in the programme for Government: "shall withdraw the Shannon LNG terminal from the EU Projects of Common Interest list in 2021". It could not be any clearer. The programme for Government leaves no room for ambiguity when it declares the three Government parties "do not support the importation of fracked gas". This was a calculated move and part of a larger strategy by both parties to distance themselves from fossil fuels to satisfy the Green Party. They even went as far as signing a document in 2020 to halt any new fossil fuels infrastructure, including LNG facilities. Any attempt by their representatives to shift the blame for derailing the north Kerry LNG facility project is a work of blackguarding, fiction and a deceitful narrative aimed at covering their tracks and maintaining their power-sharing deal with the Green Party.

After the most recent general election, the Rural Independent Group was ready and eager to engage in Government formation talks with Fianna Fáil, or anybody if it would make sense. We genuinely believed we could bring progress to rural Ireland. However, it became painfully evident that Micheál Martin had already chosen to align with the Green Party, while disregarding the needs of rural communities and the entire nation. For the life of me, I cannot ever understand how any politician can think they can face into County Kerry again, be they Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Green Party, or anyone else that supported this nonsense. I will be honest. Shame upon them because what the Government has done is to threaten the security of energy in this country for decades ahead.

We were ready, willing and able. There was a company that was willing to put up €650 million. It has already spent tens of millions of euro on this project. It was ready to go. What did the Government do? It abandoned it. For what? Was it so we could rely on England and the French? What does the Government think they will do with us the first chance there is of a hiccup? At the first sign of any trouble, does the Government think they will allow us to have gas through the pipe network and interconnectors? Not in a million years. We will be left to whistle our ducks to water. That is what will happen to us. We will be left high and dry. We will not have turf or gas, while at the same time the Government is telling us to use more and more electricity at a higher and higher cost. It is not telling us where it will come from, but it is telling us where it does not want it to come from. Has the Government totally and absolutely lost the plot?

A very good friend of mine, Nicholas Browne, continuously tells me the Green Party is doing exactly what it said it would do. It is even doing more than it said. Nobody should be saying to the Greens that they deceived them because everybody knew what they were about when they came into government. The people who really sold us down the river, however, were those in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. They are trying to be greener than the Green Party. I cannot understand why. If I live to be 150 years of age I will never understand it, but I know one thing. I will tell Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael this again and again because they hate to hear it - they hate it and there is nothing they hate more - they have lost rural Ireland. The Green Party never had it but they have lost it. When I say they have lost it, let them see how they get on when a general election is called. Let them be out up and down the country and see. Rural Ireland will kick back and say, "To hell with ye, the same way ye said to hell with us", because the Government shut down Bord na Móna and everything. It is against everything and for nothing.

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