John Whelan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

As we speak, the Irish Wind Energy Association is having its annual conference in Kilkenny. This association continues to flog a dead horse and make outrageous and unsubstantiated claims about the thousands of jobs the wind industry will generate or create in rural Ireland, which is, of course, a fallacy.

Will the Leader facilitate an urgent debate with the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy White, on foot of yesterday's game-changing decision by the European Union and the United Kingdom to build a new generation of nuclear power plants in our backyard? They are so close to us that they might as well be in Dublin. I am not going to debate the merits or otherwise of nuclear energy today. This is an issue for others and for another day. The fact that the European Union has confirmed the nuclear installation, which will cost an astronomical €65 billion and will be subsidised by the British Government to the tune of €20 billion, will go ahead, puts paid to the notion that British consumers or the British Government were ever going to purchase Irish wind energy through the notional export of wind from Ireland. That project has been hanging around on life support for the past number of months, but we can honestly say today that the UK Government has pulled the plug on it once and for all. There will be no export of wind energy from Ireland to the United Kingdom, which has instead taken the nuclear option. This is a significant issue for Ireland and our economy. Effectively, we will now import nuclear energy through the interconnector to fuel and generate power for Irish homes, farms and factories.

We can no longer remain in denial on this. Our new energy policy must take cognisance of what is happening in the United Kingdom, of the amazing and significant decision regarding the Hinkley Point nuclear power station and the fact that in the past three months, despite scaremongering regarding the Ukrainian situation, oil prices have decreased by 16%. The wind industry must cop on. Our policy must stop the mad proposal to build thousands of wind farms across rural Ireland and wind turbines which will end up as rusting hulks on our landscape if we go ahead with this fallacy.