Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for joining us today. I also thank his officials for providing a briefing for Senators on Monday. However, I have to say I was the only Senator who turned up to that briefing. I also want to thank the officials for briefing us last week at the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action. Perhaps the Senators who are in the Chamber today availed of last week's briefing and had the information they required, and so did not need a further briefing this week.

Having listened to the Minister of State's introductory remarks, it is fair to say that this is a very technical Bill. He has made it quite clear that it does not mean there is no environmental assessment. As a Green Party Senator, I would rather not be approving more fossil fuel development. I know this is an exceptional circumstance, and the likelihood is that it is not going to be needed. However, we cannot tell the public that we do not think it is going to be needed and then do nothing. We need to be prepared for next winter and that is ultimately what this Bill is about. It is also what previous legislation was about. We would not be in this situation, with such a reliance on fossil fuels and with people's bills skyrocketing, if the Green Party had been in government before this current Government. Having said that, I know that the Government has put a huge amount of investment and funding into this area.

Today is not about the cost-of-living issue; it is about electricity supply. I believe Ireland is in the top three countries for onshore development of wind. We are seeing upwards of 40% to 45% of our electricity produced through renewable means. We need to get to 80% in order for this measure not to be needed as well. I do not want to be coming back here next year or the year after and having to do the same thing. The only way we can do that, and be able to reliably say to the public that we are not going to need these emergency Bills, is by investing now, with people getting behind a green future for Ireland. It is good for people. It is good from an air pollution point of view but it is also good when it comes to our economy.

There is not much I need to say about the technicalities of the Bill because, as the Acting Chairperson has said, the Minister of State has gone into exceptional detail today and we have had the briefings. I am going to be supporting the Bill. I reiterate that I would rather not have more development but hopefully we can ramp up the renewables and we will not need this again.