Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would add to the concerns expressed earlier in regard to defined benefit schemes in respect of the semi-State companies. In 2016, we proposed an amendment to the Social Welfare Bill which would have addressed some of those anomalies. It was an opportunity to do it in a timely way and it is very regrettable that, for the last three years, we have not seen promised legislation to give security, particularly where there are solvent companies that failed to have regard to the needs of the pensioners for whom they are responsible.

I want to propose an amendment to the Order of Business to ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment or the Taoiseach to address and engage with this House specifically in regard to the inclusion of the proposed liquefied natural gas, LNG, terminal at Shannon in the European projects of common interest. Since the LNG terminal was first proposed, the debate has changed and what we understand and know has changed. Since we first discussed this proposal, for example, Ireland has signed up to the Paris climate targets, which are global targets. We have acknowledged the damage done by fracking and, therefore, banned it in terms of hydraulic fracturing in our own State, so we should not be facilitating it elsewhere. We have also made commitments to fossil fuel divestment. It is deeply inconsistent with both of those policies at a national level that we would, effectively, be those who come to the aid of the stranded assets of fracked gas, largely from the United States, and, more specifically, Pennsylvania - in fact, we hear that up to two thirds of the LNG for Shannon may come from the latter - and that we would contribute to climate change.

There is yet another new reason, if such a reason were needed, to remove this terminal from the projects of common interest. That is the testimony we heard just two weeks ago at the Joint Committee on Climate Action, where Dr. Robert Howarth of Cornell University, who has been cited 2,700 times and is the world expert on shale gas, spoke specifically about the damage that is done during the extraction of this gas and when it is being transported. I refer to the leaking of methane, which is contributing to 1 watt per square metre of global warming currently and, crucially, the fact the Earth's climate system responds more quickly to methane than to carbon dioxide. What that means is methane, which is a key by-product of the fracking process, is absorbed and causes warming at a quicker rate, so, while it does not stay as long in the atmosphere, its impact is more immediate.

This, and all the other science, has put the lie to the idea of gas as a transition fuel. It is not a transition fuel; it is an accelerant. It is shortening the period in which we have to act in respect of so many other areas. For example, if we wish to change in a proper, just transition way our agricultural processes, we must make sure we are not losing space in those areas to make the transitions we need by adding a new, unnecessary element into the mix in terms of fracked gas.

A just transition is needed. In that context, there is the opportunity for the Taoiseach to act because, up to tomorrow, Wednesday, 23 October, this State still has the opportunity to remove the LNG terminal from the European projects of common interest. Regardless of how people feel about that project, and even if they are in favour of the terminal, we do not need to tie ourselves into this being the highest priority for Ireland at European level, with the highest priority access to our electricity grid and to the energy grid across Europe. I urge action by 23 October. I would like the Taoiseach or the Minister to come to the House today and I propose an amendment to the Order of Business to that effect.