Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

It is not my contention, Minister.

I do not claim to be a climate scientist. It is the contention of those who have researched the matter. Perhaps the Minister is going to ignore the science on it. The answer in terms of energy security and resilience is, first, to stop expanding data centres. They are putting our energy usage on an accelerating upward track - they are going to be at 30% by 2030 - and the Minister is basically telling them to "burn, baby, burn", let it rip and go up even higher. First, we need to reduce energy usage where necessary rather than expanding it. Second are batteries and third is interconnection.

I will ask the question explicitly. Was there a secret deal with the Healy-Raes to give a wink and a nod to the Fortress Energy commercial LNG terminal in Tarbert, County Kerry? That is what the Business Post is reporting, saying that the line the Minister cited in the programme for Government was included, in reality, to get Healy-Rae support. Is it about appeasing Donald Trump? The Taoiseach said that Europe will have to buy more liquified natural gas from the US to appease tariff threats from Trump. Those are his words, not mine. Are we going to trade away our climate, our children's future and our energy prices to placate Trump's bully-boy tactics in order that the US fossil fuel giants can drill, baby, drill?

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