Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail)

The Fianna Fáil Party in government had a very successful policy on renewable energy and a very successful fuel poverty scheme in the form of the warmer homes scheme. The Government is continuing the latter and, although I accept there is less money for it, it is the best way to tackle fuel poverty. We heard a great deal about fuel poverty from the Labour Party in opposition, and I commended and supported it at the time. The Minister of State, Deputy Róisín Shortall, did a great deal of good work as an Opposition member of the Joint Committee on Social Protection. The findings and research she brought forward were unanswerable. Fuel poverty was an issue in respect of which I acknowledge we did not do enough in government, apart from the warmer homes scheme. Very little has been heard from this Government on the matter since the election, other than its reduction in the fuel allowance while simultaneously claiming there were no reductions in social welfare rates.

My party colleagues and I will reject the privatisation of the grid or any private grid solutions. We will call on the Fine Gael Party to implement its pre-election promises and commitments in regard to the North-South infrastructure. I acknowledge that the international commission set up by the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Pat Rabbitte, did a good job of listening to people and produced a fairly comprehensible report - in so far as it is possible to do so - on the subject of interconnection. However, this is the seventh or eighth such report by various parties. It is probably the most clearly written but it is not a novel venture.

We also intend to hold the Government accountable, although the horse has long bolted, on the issue of the east-west interconnector at Rush, which the Minister for Health promised would be rerouted in the interests of his electorate. While like the Minister I, too, welcome that proposal, nothing has as yet happened in that regard. There should be accountability in politics. It is time motions put forward in the Seanad reflected the political position. This is a political motion which does not, to say the least, reflect the policies and politics of the Fine Gael Party.