Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I thank Senator Bacik for sharing her time. The Minister is welcome here as are his words. The aim of every Member here is the same as that of the Minister. It is a question of how best we achieve it.

I am a great believer in the marketplace. The market driven economy achieves a great deal, sometimes much more than legislation. I am on the board of the Food Market Institute in the United States and chairman of EuroCommerce in Brussels. It is interesting that in the past, the battles between supermarkets for competition was based on price and range. The battle is now based on how green one is and whether one is effective in that regard. It is interesting to see that in Europe and throughout the world.

I do not get the sense that we have made the necessary mindset change here to ensure people recognise the challenge. The Minister said that earlier. Any national strategy must take, as a starting point, our overdependence on oil. The whole strategy must develop out of that reality, something the Minister touched on, because that is the threat we face and which we have to work to counter.

In addressing the threat, our policy must rest on two pillars, each of which must be pursued with equal commitment. Most of our efforts appear to be devoted to the second pillar, the production of energy from alternative sources. I concur with Senator Jim Walsh on this issue. Ireland tends to overlook the first pillar, energy conservation. It is not necessary to find or pay for energy which is not consumed. Part of our national energy problem is the reckless profligacy with which we use energy. It is an unfortunate side effect of our current prosperity that we behave almost as if it were a virtue to waste energy. This applies to the manner in which we build houses and use cars and to practices such as not bothering to switch off lights and so on. Everywhere one turns one observes the waste of vast amounts of energy. This may be foolish today but it will be madness tomorrow. The national strategy must address energy conservation before dealing with other matters.

Last week, Ireland and Britain lost an hour of daylight when the clocks were put back. Ireland should take the lead by adopting central European time. If the Minister took this single step and showed no regard for whether Britain followed suit, we would gain a substantial benefit through energy conservation.