Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise two issues relating to energy. The first, which I have raised on numerous occasions, is the need for Ireland to withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty. Once again, the European Commission is going to make a proposal that the EU withdraw from that treaty as a bloc, which would, of course, be the most effective way for a withdrawal. Once again, the Government seems to want to hold back and say that it will wait until there is a majority. However, there will not be a majority unless Ireland joins those states that have called for that withdrawal. I would like to put it on the record again that Ireland needs to withdraw. We are exposing citizens to considerable claims. We already know that the first investor–state dispute settlement, ISDS, challenge to Ireland has gone in. The shareholder, Lansdowne Oil and Gas, is taking action against the State over the Barryroe gas and oil exploration project that failed to get a licence. We will face more of these cases. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, has clearly said that the energy charter treaty is a barrier to decarbonisation and fossil fuel companies are using it to slow down the transition. It is deeply regrettable that we have a Green Party Minister who is refusing to join the other EU countries and the European Commission and to withdraw from that treaty.

The other issue I would like to raise relates to concerns I have regarding a project in respect of which a capacity licence to provide emergency power generation by 2025 was granted recently. The successful applicant for that capacity generation is the same company that is behind the liquefied natural gas, LNG, terminal in Shannon. This is a terminal that we do not need and will lock us into a carbon-rich future. The Commission for the Regulation of Utilities, CRU, which is the energy regulator, and the single electricity market, SEM, which is the all-island body for managing our energy system on this island, both expressed concerns about that company getting that licence because they did not believe that it could deliver the emergency generation without the larger LNG project and yet, because of timelines under the capacity auction system, they felt that they had no choice but to grant that capacity auction licence to the company. Given that we have already had one capacity auction fail and that promised emergency generation was not delivered and left us open to amber alerts, it is deeply concerning that the energy regulators expressed their concerns about this new emergency generation capacity but felt that it had to go ahead because of timelines that are set down in their code of conduct. I want to put on the record that we need to have a debate around how we will meet our energy demand over the next coming years until our offshore renewables come on stream.