Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

On energy and the energy crisis, I will come later to the question of supply and demand but also the question of costs. It is really important we begin by acknowledging fossil fuels have been costing us the Earth, quite literally, already. The fact the costs on fossil fuels are high now is in some ways only a reflection of the fact fossil fuels are literally costing lives and costing billions for the developing world. That has been so for a long, sustained period of time and we have known it for a long period of time and failed to act. That is really important because the fact is the cost of fossil fuel-related energy is going to continue to go up. It is going to have to continue to go up. It will go up because of market advantage being taken but it will also go up as the costs are incorporated into it.

One of the most important things we need to do - in fact there is a motion on this in the House tomorrow to which I have an amendment - is to stop talking about things like carbon pricing as being a lifestyle encourager and be very honest about it being a Pigovian tax which recognises there has been an externalisation of the cost of fossil fuels and there has been massive subsidisation of fossil fuels by governments for many years. When you frame it in that way in an honest discussion, that is to say, we are in a crisis that has been created, then you can have the vital discussion about how to protect people from the worst impacts of this transition. Then you can plan for issues of fuel poverty and issues of retrofitting at a far larger scale than currently proposed. With respect to the low interest loans, it is disappointing our recovery and resilience fund is going into de-risking banks to give loans instead of going directly into retrofitting, for example. That is €40 million Ireland is paying to banks for them to give loans instead of doing it directly.

These are the matters we need to be addressing. Then when we frame it we are not having this narrative of it being about people's habits or demand, because the conversation about demand must be honest and we must talk about data centres. We simply do not have room to parade a set of new elephants into the room and that is what these will be. We are talking about potentially 33% of energy demand. Probably one of the most chilling Oireachtas committee meetings I have sat in on was a recent session with the CRU and EirGrid where the former seemed to have rowed back on its intention to regulate this area and the latter spoke about the need to cater for the economy and data centres. We need to be clear, just as Professor Barry McMullin, who spoke at that climate committee meeting, was. We need to control and regulate the economy so that it can operate within our environmental and energy boundaries, thereby allowing us to sustain society. Will the Minister speak about what measures he will take to ensure the prioritisation of society? Frankly, just requesting that data centres move to their own energy sources - it is unclear whether those sources would be renewable or contribute to our emissions - is an insufficient response. Asking them to change their peak hours is an insufficient response. If we cannot say "No" to offering up a brand new hostage to fortune, how will we deal with all of the problems that we already have? We let Corrib go ahead, after which we had a further ten years during which people stopped looking to prioritise renewable energy and we all returned to the old model. Now, EirGrid is talking about wanting to extend coal and oil usage and delay the exit from fossil fuels. There is no scope for us to do that. The space that is left in the world in terms of fossil fuels is for developing countries, which have used only a fraction of what we have and that need that energy now in order to make the transition to renewable energy. They are further behind the curve than us and need our support and our example. If we make excuses for ourselves, we will make it impossible for them.

The European Court of Justice has told us that the Energy Charter Treaty is incompatible with the achievement of the European Green Deal, yet the arbitration panels are choosing to ignore that. What is the strategy for exiting the treaty and how can we ensure that, in doing so, Europe can give an example and free others from the treaty in order that European companies, including Irish ones, do not force countries in the developing world to continue extracting fossil fuels and delay their transition to renewable energy?