Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I am also attracted to the NewERA document. The Minister will be met with cynicism on this issue, which he will have to ride out. The document refers to important issues, some of which the previous Government was also considering, including a smart grid combining EirGrid and the gas network, which could be extraordinarily powerful.

EirGrid is the single most important and crucial link in our energy grid. Bord Gáis is now selling electricity but the ESB is not allowed to sell gas. Both issues tie into and are complementary to each other. It is crucial the proposal from Government to create a new smart grid is fleshed out and discussed. Such a discussion could take place in this House. It will never be done in the other House because people will be sniping at each other. It is a crucial and difficult issue which needs to be worked through.

The proposal to create a new bioenergy resource by bringing Coillte and Bord na Móna together could create a new impetus and release a new dynamic in energy production in this country. It should also be tied into agriculture. There is no doubt we have a suitable climate whereby farms could be converted into biogas production units. I recently saw a project in Germany involving a 300 acre farm, two acres of which are set aside for the production of biogas and the rest of which is used to grow maize and, in particular, wheat, which is used to create biogas for electricity and other uses.

These are things which are not happening in Ireland. We need one thing which is missing from the programme for Government, namely, an energy initiative. We need to challenge various groups. We should involve the IFA in the initiative by telling it we think we can make progress and that we would like to hear what it would do. The same could happen with the unions, something which I have said to my union colleagues.

There is no point in only discussing jobs; we can only create jobs if we can create sustainable energy. For example, we need to sit down with the hotel industry and use the brains of everybody involved in it, including workers, management and Government, to determine how we can sell the product. Tourism is a major component of the programme, which is welcome, but we should not fall into the trap of thinking that all wisdom is in the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport. Rather, it should be the crossroads to make things work in a particular way and use every available resource, including energy, experience and expertise, to make it happen. It is something we need to be working towards.

On political reform, I wish to refer to local government. I want to give an example from the Taoiseach's constituency. I met the former county manager of Mayo who put in place a programme that examined wind energy of 500 MW, which is one tenth of our peak needs, a wave energy programme involving those waves I mentioned earlier, and a tidal energy programme based at Bull's Mouth in Achill, where the tide runs in an out at an extraordinary speed twice, three or four times a day. That could not find a way forward because a connection to the grid could not be secured. There was also a foreshore legislation difficulty, as well as a few others. If local authorities were given the power to do some of these things and allowed to change the rules in order to make them happen, there is a huge energy supply to be released.

In thanking the Minister for engaging in this discussion, I have only touched on a document which could easily be rubbished by people as being purely aspirational. It is important that it is aspirational, but it must also be deliverable. It is and we need to see it being delivered upon. The Government parties have provided in the document for the need to look at various public bodies and what progress has been made. I would like to think that every three months we will be able to come back to this debate and ask what progress has been made on the commitments given and apply the assessment about which we have talked for others to ourselves.