Tony Mulcahy (Fine Gael)

I will discuss the potential for development of privately-owned grid solutions. That would be an option for those building wind farms or hydro-pump storage facilities, as they could bring their line to the grid. The grid consists of infrastructure like pylons and cabling, and that may reduce the cost in having to meet targets as there may be quicker delivery. We must consider alternative solutions.

If we had a heat recovery system here while we were discussing septic tanks, we would have had much gas, heat and wind around. There would be no shortage of energy recovery. I would welcome a debate on the fracking mining technology and nuclear energy. I do not have any issue with such a debate. We should research all the available options. If such technology damages the environment we could not use it but there should be a proper informed debate on the issues before making a decision. I do not know the figures for electric cars but I assume we can look to the future and see that the cost of diesel and petrol ten or 20 years from now will mean there must be an alternative. Those fuels will run out at some stage, without doubt. I thank all my colleagues for contributing to a very well-informed debate and thank the Minister and Minister of State for attending.