Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Humphreys for obliging me. It has been a very interesting debate, and I am going to confine myself to one particular aspect of it, which will not surprise anybody here, and that is the Shannon LNG project. I have been in the House 12 years and I think my maiden speech here asked the Government of the day to support that project and to put everything it could behind it. Here we are 12 years on and unfortunately we are still very beleaguered.

I compliment the Minister and I read closely what he said in the Dáil. He was under fierce pressure from environmentalists, the Green Party and, extraordinarily, people on the extreme left. I would say to the Green Party that it had better mind its clothes, because if it does not, the Trotskyites and the people on the left will take them. A new party; a Trotskyite-green party, has been formed.

Everybody now seems to know everything about liquified natural gas, LNG. When I talked about it six, eight, ten and 12 years ago, no one had a clue about it and no one had anything to say about it. The reason it did not get the go-ahead in those days was because one individual succeeded in delaying it, and he was entitled to go through the process. His fear at the time had nothing whatsoever to do with what we are talking about today, and perhaps Senator Higgins does not know this. The fear at the time was safety. Every kind of story was put out that this LNG would be explosive, volatile and dangerous but, in fact, empirical showed that not to be true at all. Nevertheless, because of the process that was there at the time, the project was halted long enough for the principals behind it to get windy and nervous about their money and investment and to pull out.

Local people, local money and a local businessman persevered. They got new money and came up with a whole new project. I do not think any project in the history of this country has been subjected to such scrutiny and yet again, because they ran out of time, technically it was obliged to go back into the public domain, by which time Uncle Tom Cobley and others had got on the Shannon LNG bandwagon. It is the greatest bandwagon since the bandwagon against the Carnsore Point nuclear power station which was put forward many years ago by the great Des O'Malley.

I thank the Minister for holding his ground on projects of common interest. This project is essential in the long run to our energy security. The people who will be most affected by any downsides are the people of Kerry and Clare who are 99% in favour of it. We have Tarbert power station, which is oil-fired, Moneypoint, which is coal-fired, and Aughinish Alumina, and we welcomed them because we needed jobs. The world is about people. I cannot understand these people who care so much about humanity but who do not seem to be troubled about the problems of individual people.

I represent an area where there has been widespread immigration over decades. Towns and villages have been decimated. We cannot put a football team out, whereas before we would have had four teams competing with each other. I know the Minister is aware of this and, as he said, he will not approve of any project in Ballylongford, Tarbert or anywhere that does not stand up to scrutiny. He is right about that and we are prepared to accept all that, but it is essential that we have the option.

At the moment the focus is on fracked gas. We do not know what kind of gas will come in here eventually. There may be changes, improvements and new methodology, but it is important we have a terminal to receive clean gas if it comes into us in liquid form and is transmogrified back into gas, creating loads of jobs - 500 jobs in construction - and creating a new power station. No one seems to be looking at that. It is very frustrating for people.

I would love Members to listen to the people of north Kerry to hear how they view what is going on here. Now we have the Hulk and Cher against us. People are putting out a rumour now that the blooming Pope is against us. I say to the Minister to hang tough and to take on the Hulk, Cher and, if he has to, the Pope because this project is going to get over the line sooner or later and we will be damn glad of it.