Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is deeply regrettable that emergency legislation is being rushed through the House again. We made that clear to the Minister when he proposed that the committee wave pre-legislative scrutiny. The Government’s attempt to get a handle on supply and demand is a fiasco at this stage, as is the fact that more emergency legislation is having to be passed by the Houses.

We all know our planning laws are fundamental to the protection of citizens and the environment against poor development, and we know what happens when shortcuts are taken. It is quite something. We must all acknowledge that we are now being asked to set aside significant parts of the planning process to secure 450 MW of generation capacity. That is a huge responsibility and we should all be aware of what we are being asked to do.

The Opposition has been caught in a bind because we do not have any option but to accept this legislation, even though we know the risks it entails. Given what has been going on with An Bord Pleanála in respect of planning does not give us much comfort either. We do not have any other option but to support the Bill because we have been walked to the cliff edge when it comes to energy generation, electricity supply, and the risk of blackouts. There has been a lot of deliberate conflation not by the Minister of State, but in certain quarters. Even in the audiovisual room yesterday, an attempt was made to conflate energy supply with energy generation, which was deeply unfortunate. People should be mindful that they are very different things.

What is needed to be asked and what was absent from the contributions of Senators Horkan and Lombard is the question of how we got here. We got here because of failed policy under the previous Government, particularly from Fine Gael, which has been in government for ten years. The demand for electrify, which has been facilitated by that party having no strategy or planning whatsoever, has led us to this point. The writing has been on the wall for years. It is all in EirGrid’s generation capacity statement. We are left with no alternative because the Government’s sheer incompetence has left us with none.

The terms “data centres” and “large energy users” do not appear in the Bill. My amendments were ruled out of order because they were not relevant to the Bill. However, they are absolutely relevant to the Bill. Large energy users are critical to why we are in this situation. It is interesting to see that Ukraine is referred to in the Bill’s Long Title, when we know this is not about gas supply issues; it is about electricity generation capacity. It is interesting that Ukraine was mentioned in the title. I wonder if this was done to get the legislation past the EU Commission, as we are seeking an exception from the EIA directive.

My amendments that were ruled out of order were on excessive demand from data centres. It is important to put on record the level of scrutiny that has been given to the Bill. Some 15 minutes before the commencement of a meeting of the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action, members were sent a letter by the Minister asking that we waive pre-legislative scrutiny, followed by a private briefing by officials. I welcome that we were given three hours to debate the Bill in the Seanad, but the speed at which it was passed by the Lower House was remarkable. We know the Minister of State will not accept amendments, no matter the arguments. The fact that he did not even have the opportunity to finish his opening remarks in the Dáil is particularly damning. The costs of these provisions are astronomical. A sum of €350 million was allocated in a Supplementary Estimate, which was scrutinised by the select committee before the summer, with funds that were collected through carbon tax being redirected from retrofitting to pay for emergency generation. Ireland is failing in its obligations to set out its plans to keep global warming to 1.5°C, yet we are building more fossil fuel infrastructure to facilitate the excess demand large energy users, particularly data centres, are putting on our electricity grid and now on our gas supply as well.

We will deal on Committee Stage with our amendment to delete the provision regarding alternative appropriate sites. The legislation, as currently drafted, is too vague. It is not specific enough to meet the requirement of EU law. We raised this with the officials when they presented to the joint committee. Will the Minister of State outlines how he see this being passed? The Acting Chairman is indicating my time is up but we have three hours for the debate and there is only a handful of amendments.