Derek McDowell (Labour)

Senator Daly is aware that the use of such technology continues to be quite expensive. We are spending hundreds of millions of euro to install certain facilities in Moneypoint which really should have been there in the first place. While such facilities will help to reduce emissions, we will continue to use coal, which is essentially a dirty fuel. If we do not do something soon, we will have lost our opportunity to develop cofiring, which is the use of a mix of fuels. The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has been talking about cofiring as a means of electricity generation for a number of years. It could involve a mix of peat and biomass, or a mix of coal and biomass. An opportunity still exists in Moneypoint to do something along those lines and I hope we will take it. This illustrates the essential conflict between the aims of seeking to tackle climate change and seeking to ensure we have a diversity of fuels available for generating electricity in the future. We have not resolved that and as long we do not do so, we will continue to emit far too high a level of carbon emissions in the energy sector.