Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and congratulate him on his re-appointment to this political position. He has taken on an important task.

I concur with everything that was said on all sides of the House and I agree very much with what Senator Daly said about the need to have a strong, politically driven energy agency. While we have groups such as Sustainable Energy Ireland we need to take on board the energy debate at a much higher level. There were times in the 1980s and 1990s when a senior Minister had responsibility for energy. At this crucial point in the energy debate, consideration of energy resources into the future must be given the highest political attention. Following the next election, I hope the Government elected will appoint a senior Minister to preside over a full-scale energy Department. With energy consumption having increased dramatically in recent decades and the threat posed to our oil and gas supplies, we have to come up with alternatives. While significant work has been done on this we are not yet getting results.

I welcome the measures in this area announced in budget but we need to take the debate further. The grants scheme referred to by the Minister of State needs to be introduced at the earliest possible opportunity. It should commence in terms of domestic houses. Significant grant aid should be given for the use of solar panels and geothermal units, which are practical and useful units that are used widely throughout Europe. We should strongly promote the use of those products here.

I concur with what Senator Quinn said about the farmland of Ireland and how it could be turned into an oil well — pardon the pun. We could grow crops for biofuels, especially in north Cork where the future of the sugar industry is under the gravest threat. I hope the Minister of State, in conjunction with his ministerial colleague in the Department of Agriculture and Food, is examining alternative options for sugar beet production. Sugar beet can be used for the production of biofuel and that option must be given serious consideration.

I hope that energy is given much greater political attention. I also hope that a grants scheme will be put in place to encourage domestic households and those building houses to invest in alternative energy technology. I further hope the Minister of State and his ministerial colleague in the Department of Agriculture and Food are examining all the options in terms of biofuels, biodiesel and bioethanol with a view to ensuring that Irish farms can grow crops for all types of fuels in the near future and for them to be processed here.