Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I thank all those who spoke tonight, and the Minister of State for attending the debate. I spent most of my life in the business world where, if one sees a crisis coming one panics and does something about it. I fear that I do not hear that sense of urgency coming from the Government. It happens that this motion which I put down over a week ago, overlaps with the headline in The Times today: "Britain goes nuclear to beat energy crisis". I do not get a sense of that crisis here. As I said in my opening proposals, this was already headline news in 2004, and even ten years before then. This applies to Ireland much more than elsewhere.

Forfás published last month an interesting document, which was not mentioned today, on our oil dependency. This country is more dependent on oil than any other country in Europe. Another figure in that document is that we are the third largest consumer of oil per capita in the 25 EU countries. This Government does not recognise that sense of urgency.

This has been a good debate in which we have learned about several initiatives, including alternative sources, such as ethanol. I read recently that Richard Branson is investing $400 million in ethanol in the belief that it represents an opportunity. A hero of country music fans some 20 or 30 years ago, Willie Nelson——