Mark Duffy (Fine Gael)

The Minister is welcome to the House this afternoon to discuss the energy and electricity Bill. I welcome the urgency of it moving ahead at speed because we do need to move at speed both in terms of legislating for this important Bill but also in creating the critical infrastructure that is needed to deliver on the ambitions that have been set out by Government, including housing, transport and, indeed, energy. The €1.5 billion investment into ESB Networks over the next five years is critical for the growth and ambition the Minister has outlined, as well as the increased borrowing limits from €12 billion to €17 billion. It is very ambitious and should set the conditions for that. On a day when we have the launch of the new housing plan with the ambition over the next five years to build 300,000 new homes, the bedrock and the conditions need to be set for that, and one of the most fundamental is electricity and, obviously, water and wastewater infrastructure to facilitate this ambitious target.

We know that housing is the pressing social need of the day. This investment can and will be critical to enabling that ambitious development, so I do welcome that. However, we are also talking this morning about delivering homes and building communities. We need to have strong transport-orientated development around these new developments and new settlements right across the country. We need to strengthen and make more resilient our transport network and this investment can help do that. Importantly, as we decarbonise as a country, we need to have the infrastructure and the networks and grid to enable that both from a macrogeneration point of view - we all know the opportunity that is presented with offshore renewable energy and onshore, again, in the right places - but also microgeneration for community-owned renewable projects and, indeed, individual homeowners can all play a small part in us decarbonising as a country but also growing our economy and growing the ambition of the country. In particular over the past number of years since Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the weaponisation of energy we have seen right across the Continent and, indeed, worldwide, we need to have a strong, secure and stable energy supply and we need to be resilient in relation to that. I welcome this ambition and this investment. I welcome the discussion on it this afternoon in the Seanad and I hope that we can collectively move forward with it as soon as possible.

Senator Boyhan mentioned rural communities. In my own county of Mayo we have some of the largest windfarms in the country, but we also have some operators who are trying to chance their arm really because of the lack of regulation on where is the right and suitable location for inland turbines and renewable energy projects. We do need clarity on that, and we need to see gain and community benefit at source in these communities in these counties. I know there are some, but it does need to be improved upon. Like I said, we have live issues where we have proposed developments in places that are totally unsuitable, so we do need to have clarity in terms of where and what is being proposed and developed, and when they are developed, there needs to be strong gain locally. People need to see that if there is an investment into improving the electrical supply for the State then the domestic user who is next to these farms should see a positive impact for their bill. I believe it is a very easy way of showing the benefit that Senator Boyhan has outlined. This is a huge financial investment in the ESB, and small interventions like that to support homeowners who are impacted at source is a marked way of bringing people along on this journey we are going on as a country where we are trying to rapidly increase the provision of critical infrastructure like housing, transport and energy while also rapidly decreasing our carbon footprint. It is unprecedented in terms of its investment and ambition, and I welcome that, but, as political representatives, we always must take this into account. We always must bring communities and people along on this journey with us. I commend this Bill on behalf of my colleagues in Fine Gael in the House. I look forward to further discussion on it.