Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

-----whether it is farmers worried about forestry, turf cutters or people who wonder at the amazing expectations other people have for cars on the road by a certain date, for certain amounts of carbon sequestration or for the end of fossil fuels, which we would all like but which cannot be achieved easily or in the short term. It would be timely for Green Party members in government to show they are realistic people and know that sometimes the perfect can be the enemy of the good but no, they cling to their perfectionism by opposing a sensible solution. I recall the words in The Merchant of Venice, when Portia was appealed to: "To do a great right do a little wrong". In order to avoid the greater evil of further environmental degradation, the loss of a valuable resource and the further demoralisation of people in rural Ireland, would Green Party members not show a bit of creativity or at least pretend to try?

There is nothing of that in the Minister of State's speech today, only the usual flat balderdash we got from Government which hides behind advice it never publishes and which warns of unintended consequences, bad precedents and all that sort of nonsense. There is an obvious problem and an obvious solution. The solution is to set out to cure the defect and take away the reward for the production of energy from those who committed the initial wrong, while providing we can continue to use the resource now that it is there.

The idea we would entertain the uprooting by these turbines by the ESB as a mea culpa, only doing further damage to the environment, is nonsense. It speaks volumes. It is a combination of ineffectual government and arrogance, whereby the Government does not even feel it needs to give a reason for not taking a well-researched and good idea on board. One only has to look at the recitals in this Bill and all the issues that arise, including the possibility of power cuts in the State during times of peak demand and the significant risk to electricity security of supply in the coming years. The reality is that in order to maintain our electricity generation, there needs to be continued, and at times increased, use of fossil fuels, including coal and diesel. There will be hell to pay if the lights go out. Government Members will know all about it then.