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

There is no game here and nobody is being taken for a fool. Not only am I not naive, I have a record going back 30 years of absolute commitment to climate action in our country, particularly in the area of keeping fossil fuels in the ground. For decades, we have campaigned and worked in that area and nothing has changed in that regard. The Government position has not changed. The Deputy has heard no one from the Government side say that we are going back on the energy security strategy statement, which said we would not have a commercial facility. This was very clear. The amendment was purely technical in nature but we also had a court decision. We have to be careful not to comment on court decisions but some may have drawn an inference from this that there was a change and Government policy would be undermined. I do not believe the court decision had anything really to do with Government policy. It was addressing more technical issues regarding how An Bord Pleanála goes about its processes. The actual Government position has stayed the same. We are not doing commercial facilities. That is rock solid, 100% certain and as clear today as it was three weeks ago, six months ago and a year ago. I hope that certainty puts the Deputy's mind at rest. We do have security issues that need to be looked at. We have always been upfront about this. We printed the policy and published it, agreed it in this House, and discussed in some detail how we would manage a situation where Russia or another actor was to be able to take out a gas pipeline, which has happened in other European countries. I have looked to see how we manage that question in a proper, scientific, engineering and analytical way. One option would be to go with a facility like the FRSU, which would be temporary, State-led and, as Deputy O'Rourke said when he set out all the conditions, not in breach of our climate laws

It is frustrating that it can take time, but further analysis is warranted to see if we could do it in a different way. That is what I am working on.

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