Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I can see the motivation for the amendment but I do not propose to accept it. The agency in its operations has a specific, relatively limited role. It is about energy security and it has always been about the provision of 90 days' stock of oil. To be honest, the meetings and international obligations in that regard are relatively precise and do not go into the wider energy policy areas. That is appropriate.

I agree with the Senator that the provisions of the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act are important and that we must progress from that. We will do so in the expansion of the ending of oil and gas licences now in Irish waters, which is a significant development. It is agreed in the programme for Government that it would apply to gas exploration as well as oil exploration. Similarly, there is an agreement in the programme for Government that we will remove from the projects of common interest, PCI, list items such as LNG terminal applications and that the Department will issue a policy statement which makes it clear that this is not the future direction in which the country is going. Instead, we are going to provide our energy security through large-scale renewables production, increased interconnection in electricity markets and the development of green hydrogen solutions. There is great potential development in the alternative energy world that is now evolving.I absolutely agree that we need to monitor progress and make sure we are up to speed on that, but that is for another day and for different legislation. This is a very precise agency concerning oil stocks maintenance. The function of the Bill is to use some of the revenues that are becoming available for that purpose to invest in a climate fund. I do not think we should try to expand it to the wider energy policy remit.