Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I fully accept the anxiety expressed by Senator McGreehan about the short-term consequences for many people in this country, particularly for small businesses, arising out of the massive increase in energy prices. These increases are right across the board, from shopkeepers and hoteliers whose electricity bills have shot up to restaurants, small traders and small manufacturing businesses. They are extremely vulnerable. I know the Government is proposing to bring in a suite of measures to address that issue but it is a serious economic threat in the short term. I accept that between now and the end of March of next year, there is a serious threat to many Irish small and medium enterprises and consequently to jobs.

Like the Minister, I do not think this energy crisis is something that will just blow over some time in March of next year. It is greatly to be hoped that that will happen, but the Minister said this is like the oil crisis of the 1970s. I am of the view that we have to plan for the next five to ten years in a way which consolidates Ireland’s economic interests. The first duty of a Government is to ensure the economy keeps functioning. At the moment, 52% of our electricity consumption is gas-generated and more than 70% of that comes through two interconnectors which converge on the Moffat interconnector in Scotland. That is a serious thing because if anything went wrong there, this country would simply be blacked out and we would fall on our knees economically. We are extremely vulnerable, therefore. Now that the UK has left the EU, it is not bound by the energy sharing equality arrangements that applied before. I do not believe that because of the Single Market in Ireland, the UK will put the boot into us with regard to gas supply. It is probably the case that if nothing goes wrong, there will be an adequate supply from Norwegian waters and the North Sea gas reserves.

That is probably the case but we have nothing to be complacent about. Our native gas fields are rapidly depleting. The Corrib gas field will be gone in a number of years and even though there is potential for its further expansion, the Minister is not speaking publicly in favour of that. The Minister has said that the Barryroe field is in deep water but it is not; it is only 100 m deep. That is potentially one of the largest hydrocarbon fields as yet unexplored in Europe. I do not accept the proposition that it should not be explored. I accept the proposition enunciated by the Minister in 2007 that we should maximise exploration in order, as far as we can, to have a degree of energy security.On the Ballylongford LNG proposal, I am not particularly tied to LNG coming from one part of the world or other. It does not matter to me whether it comes from the Gulf, Texas or wherever. I just want to be sure that we have adequate storage facilities in this country. The Minister has indicated that he expects to get the report of a study on our options in the matter in the near future. While that is welcome, that work should have been done a long time ago. He has said that batteries is one option and gas storage is another. We need gas storage. In one shape or another we will be dependent on gas reserves from somewhere for the next 30 years. On any view, we must develop our own gas storage facilities.

The Minister has melted his position slightly. Although he is still against Ballylongford, he is now saying that if there is to be gas storage, it will be under Government management. Is it to be under Government management and what does that mean? I am not particularly worried who manages our storage, but who will build it? Will the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications build it if the Minister succeeds in persuading An Bord Pleanála to refuse permission for the present proposals for Ballylongford? These kinds of issues are really important.

This is the basic point. We, as a country, want to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, but we do not want over the next three, five or eight years to be in a crisis that causes major problems for the country. We do not want to be vulnerable to shortages for whatever reason arising in the North Sea or the Norwegian gas fields if we can avoid it. Therefore, LNG importation is a good idea and, as Senator Murphy said, the Minister should now embrace the idea of gas storage to ensure as far as possible we do not have blackouts and brownouts. I fully accept, as the Minister has said on a number of occasions, that we need to alter our energy consumption patterns. Doubtless, the increase in prices will have that effect no matter what. However, it is not simply a matter of just turning down the thermostats or taking shorter showers if our industry and small enterprises end up buckling under this crisis, which may last for years. The responsibility for failing to deal adequately with that scenario lies with the Government.