Seanad debates

Tuesday, 21 September 2021

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

 

2:30 pm

Photo of Ned O'SullivanNed O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is nice to be back in familiar surroundings. I have spoken here many times in the past about energy security. Without being a Cassandra, it has reached a critical stage. Several times during the summer, our warmest months, the warning register was showing up in amber. That means we were close enough to being at full supply and being maxed out. It is a real worry as to whether we will have an energy supply and confidence in the winter. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, was unable last week to give a categoric assurance that we would be able to meet all our energy needs. The Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, said more or less the same thing on television at the weekend.

It is time we woke up and started doing something about it. Moneypoint power station is just across the river from me. In the last 24 hours, Moneypoint, which is coal-fired, was putting up over 21% of the total national usage of power. In the same period, all of the renewable energies combined, including wind, came up with 14%. I am not knocking wind power. It is important and last year upwards of 40% of our requirement was met by wind power but there were many days last year when wind power contributed almost nil and several days when it contributed zero to the grid. In that context, what are we going to do? We all know, particularly those in the Green Party, that there is a problem with fossil fuels. I thought we had an understanding that in the interim period we would make use of the resources that are available to us.

There is a project which I have mentioned here many times, namely Shannon liquefied natural gas, LNG. It proposes to import gas in liquefied form into the Shannon Estuary in County Kerry. That project is before the planners so I will not say a whole lot about it. I know I am running out of time but it is important that the planning process would be allowed to proceed without any interference from outside bodies, including the Government. The promoters of the project are quite happy to accept a condition that only non-fracked gas will be used. This is important and needs to be stressed. They are quite happy to rule out fracked gas, which is something one cannot say about our current supply as it is coming from Russia. Much of it is fracked gas and a lot of it is dubious. I am speaking on behalf of the constituency I live in and which I represented at local level for 25 years but I am also speaking in the national interest. We must be mature enough to realise that despite what is in the programme for Government, we have to be able to vary it and deal with situations that are in front of us. I hope the planning process will be allowed to proceed unhindered.

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