Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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166. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the level of natural gas used in Ireland in each of the years 2019, 2020 and 2021; the projected use in 2022; the level of natural gas produced at the Corrib field or other sources here in each of those years; the projected requirement in 2022; the projected production volume at Corrib in 2023, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45974/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Information on the historic annual gas demand and supply, forecast annual gas demand and forecast gas supply from Corrib gas field is available in the 2021 Network Development Plan published by Gas Networks Ireland. The annual data relates to the gas year from October to September.The figures for natural gas production from the Corrib Gas Field and Kinsale Areas Gas Fields in 2019, 2020 and 2021 is presented in the table below.

The Kinsale Area gas fields ceased production on 5th July 2020. Information on projected volumes of natural gas from Corrib Gas Field would be considered commercially sensitive information and it would not be appropriate to release them.

Ireland sources roughly one-quarter of its gas from the Corrib gas field, and three-quarters via an interconnector from the UK, which has diverse sources of supply. Both the UK and Ireland both have far less reliance on Russian gas than other European Countries. The UK’s gas supply comes from indigenous supplies, via pipelines from Norway, interconnectors with Belgium and the Netherlands and through imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

As production from the Corrib gas field declines, our import dependence on natural gas from the UK will increase in the near term.

In light of the Ukraine crisis, the European Commission is working closely with Member States to protect the resilience of Europe’s gas supply. The Commission is also actively engaging with other countries to ensure sufficient and timely supply of natural gas to the EU from diverse sources across the globe to avoid supply shocks, including those that could result from disruptions.

It is essential that we cut our dependence on imported fossil fuels, and power comes from our own indigenous renewable resources including wind and solar. Climate Action Plan 2021 sets an ambitious target to increase the share of electricity demand generated from renewables sources to up to 80% by 2030.