Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is not the first time that I have raised the issue of the Energy Charter Treaty with the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth. I would like to tease out today some of the issues around the news that the Government is going to install 2,000 MW of thermal generation capacity. The International Energy Agency have forecast that if governments are serious about achieving the climate targets, then there can be no new oil, gas or coal development. Here we are, however, a few months later and the Government are proposing to build several new gas-fired power plants.

My first concern, and I would like to hear assurances from the Minister of State on this, is the proposal to open up these gas-powered plants and how it leaves citizens liable to compensation claims under the Energy Charter Treaty. These generation facilities will have the protection of the investor-state dispute mechanism within the Energy Charter Treaty, which allows the companies to sue governments for taking climate action and to claim very significant compensation in special corporate courts with little oversight. That is compensation money that could be spent on a just transition and will make decarbonisation much more expensive for citizens.

There are concerning parallels between the situation we find ourselves in currently around energy security and that of the Dutch in 2007 and 2009. In 2007 the Dutch found they were over-reliant on gas and were facing rising energy prices. In a bid to bring down the cost of energy for households, they invited coal-powered plants to set up in the Netherlands. There was the successful Urgenda climate court case, with which I am sure, as a Green Party member, the Minister of State would be very familiar. The Dutch Government was told it had to do more to be compliant with the Paris Agreement and to bring down its emissions. The easiest thing for it to do was, of course, to tackle the dirtiest industry, which is the coal-fired power plants. The Dutch Government said it was going to phase out those coal-fired power plants by 2030 and is now facing a €2.4 billion compensation claim from RWE - which, interestingly, is investing in our offshore wind in Ireland - and Uniper.

What risk analysis has the Government carried out on these gas-fired power plants? If these are temporary gas-fired power plants, how are we going to ensure we are not then liable for compensation claims when we choose to phase out these gas companies?I would like assurances from the Minister of State as to the duration of the contract they are being offered in the public procurement process. We are being told that these generators will be used as little as possible and that they are there as an emergency backup. What sort of commitment are we giving to investors and those in the business of making profits in terms of their income? We are telling them that we want them to set up here but the gas-fired power plants may never be powered up. What sort of financial incentives are the investors being offered? That does not seem like a very good investment. If we are serious about decarbonisation, will there be a stipulation in the public procurement contract that the infrastructure will be capable of taking hydrogen and that it should be mandated to transition to the use of green hydrogen?

Finally, as with waste, the key issue is reducing demand for energy. That should be our starting point in respect of renewable energy and all of that. It should be about reducing the amount of energy we need in the first place. We all know that the reason we have the gas-fired power plants is data centres. The EirGrid CEO left us in no doubt because he said the quiet bit out loud when he was speaking at an event for the data centre lobby. He said that the reason this proposition has come out is EirGrid cannot its customers connected with sufficient electricity in the near term. It is as simple as that. He said that the proposition is designed fundamentally to try to give clients and critical FDI coming into the country a way to continue to grow their business. That contradicts completely the hierarchy of energy use. I look forward to hearing the Minister of State's response.