Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Power, to the House and I am delighted to have the opportunity to say a few words on this Bill. My maiden speech in this House in 1993 was about the gas interconnector in Dundalk. At that time, I said I hoped the gas supply would be extended to the west and to County Mayo. I have seen where that has nearly come to fruition. The pipeline has been laid in most of Mayo, but there is no gas yet. I hope the Corrib gas situation will be resolved. I wish the forum taking part in negotiations the best of luck in that respect.

Senator Walsh made the point that there are eight counties without gas. It is true to say that counties without gas will be at a disadvantage in the future. I welcome the development of a gas supply in Mayo, but it would not be in place were it not for the fact that the gas find off the west coast means there must be a pipeline linking Mayo with the north-east pipeline.

The statistics given by the Minister of State are interesting. I did not know that as much as 60% of our electricity was generated by gas. Around 5% of our gas comes from the UK, which is significant, and I notice that only 2% of the UK gas market is supplied by Ukraine or Russia. The problems with the pipeline were not a significant factor for the UK, but it highlights the amount of gas produced in Britain, and what it means to its economy now that it is in a downturn. The British can generate millions and millions of pounds in revenue from these natural resources, which they can use to stimulate their economy. We do not have that wealth, which is one of our problems. We have gas, but we are not getting any royalties from it. We do not have any oil. While the perception in the past few years was that we are very wealthy country, we do not have any real wealth in oil, gas, diamonds or gold.

The Minister of State's speech highlights the significance of gas to this country. We have all seen how prices in petrol and diesel rocketed in the past couple of years, and are now back down again. While the energy regulator has granted price increases to the energy suppliers, we need to bring down the price of electricity. A number of producers in industry are dependent on gas and electricity for exports, and they are under severe pressure. Our householders are under pressure as well. Their budgets are being cut, and the Taoiseach has just announced the cuts that will take place in the next few months. We need to get our prices in order. We need to get our competitiveness back and we need to examine gas and electricity prices.

This Bill is basically about increasing borrowing for Bord Gáis Éireann, and Fine Gael welcomes that. The company needs funds, it needs to plan for the future and it is only right that it has the borrowings it needs. It has a huge infrastructure right across the country, and it supplies very small towns. Will there be a facility to connect villages that are near connected towns? There are people who are interested in availing of this possibility.

I wish the Minister of State well with the Bill, and I give it my full support.