Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I need to get clarification from the Deputy's own party on whether it supports the State-led strategic gas reserve? I am not sure where the Labour Party stands on that. All parties should support it because there is a risk to our country, society and economy if we do not build it. We have an oil reserve but we do not have a gas reserve and we need that. It will be State-led.

On the other matters, such as the planning application the Deputy referred to, any application for fossil fuel infrastructure will be subject to planning, consenting and regulatory approvals by the relevant bodies and the provisions of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act. That is important. Those conditions will apply but the policy statement on the importation of fracked gas will no longer have to be considered. I have been clear on that. I have set that statement aside. I believe that is the right thing to do because the legal advice received by my predecessor was that we could not make a distinction between types of gas. That legal advice was very clear but it was not acted upon. Such a distinction would have made the delivery of any type of strategic gas reserve incredibly difficult. The matter of any private entity making an application for anything in this country goes through the normal planning process. It will be assessed by An Bord Pleanála in line with our legislation. I will not be intervening.

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