Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

There was an earlier question. Without being disrespectful to the drafters of the written reply, maybe I gave a similar response to the first question today. I might, if I can, add to that the basic details of it - 28 actions, a series of annex reports, from former Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach, Mr. Dermot McCarthy, and from Cambridge Economic Policy Associates, CEPA.

The key recognition is energy security. We could look at one issue, but it is first and foremost about reducing our use of energy. That is the first key priority. Second, it is about switching to renewables. There is a complete connection between meeting our climate targets and providing energy security. They are not contrary or competing; they are very much complementary. The third leg of this table of security we need to create is resilient systems. That means that in the interim period, and it is interim and temporary, we need a short-term storage facility. In a world where we have seen gas pipelines blown up and anchors dragged across others, we need to have a short-term, temporary gas storage facility that is State-led and strategic, not commercial. On the governance aspect, Dermot McCarthy's report is important. It was published in full and showed that there was no lack of motivation, professionalism or real integrity within our agencies and our regulators and so on, but we do need to use it as a review.

I do not believe we have focused sufficient attention historically on either climate or climate security. We need to do that. We do that by changing the number of hours that we might tolerate in terms of loss of load as one example. There is an opportunity to look at the structures we have. We have a regulatory system that was designed very much back in the previous decades. For example, the one reporting line that CRU has is to the Oireachtas committee. While the committee does really important and good work, the Government also needs a clear line of communication and an ability to interact and engage. It is about maintaining the independence of our regulatory system and our markets approach but also about having the ability to co-ordinate the State's strategic response to this great leap we need to make to cleaner energy and a more secure future.

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