Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)

In the limited time I have, I will make one short point. So much of the debate on the cost of energy is focused only on today and what can the Government do today to alleviate increased cost on households. That is, of course, essential but what is the point if we are not also talking about how we get away from our dependency on expensive, shock-sensitive fossil fuels? Even though more should be done, there is a limit to what a Government can do in an emergency mitigation situation. It is expensive and is never going to cover everything that is needed.

That dual-track approach on energy of "helping today, saving tomorrow" is one the Green Party devoted much of its time to in the previous Government when external shocks, like the invasion of Ukraine hit. It was former Minister, Eamon Ryan, who led on developing energy credits to ease the massive burden on households. However, imagine the cost to the economy if we had not spent the two previous decades building our renewable energy capacity. Should we not be concerned with asking ourselves how the Irish people can afford another shock like that?

I hope the Minister of State agrees with what I am saying and that Government policy is focused on that but it does turn out to be a question of priorities. When the climate and nature fund, a large portion of which was set aside for the future focus piece on energy, especially offshore but also retrofit, is wiped out in one go, we are shown what the Government's priorities are.

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