Amendments Nos. 2, 5 and 9 are in my name and Deputy Pa Daly's. This Bill is a bit of a Trojan horse - I think most of us in the Opposition see it as that - around getting commercial LNG and more fossil fuel into the system. Amendment No. 2 inserts a provision to make sure this is for emergency use only. Amendment No. 5 attempts to provide a definition for "temporary" in the Bill. The Minister dropped "emergency" from the Title of the Bill and that really shows that the cloak is falling from the eyes here. People used to say, "Build it and they will come". That is certainly what we think this is. Amendment No. 9 seeks to insert a provision for "Temporary emergency use". This Bill is supposed to be a temporary measure to keep the lights on in an emergency. The only reason we need this Bill is due to the short-sightedness of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael which made sure we were left in this situation where we now need this in an emergency. The Minister can throw his eyes up to heaven but if I had been in government for the past 100 years, I would be embarrassed too, so there you go. We cannot use these kinds of things as an excuse for a day-to-day operation. That is what we are worried about. The signs the Minister has given us so far are certainly making us realise that we cannot be relying on fossil fuels. We were here last week talking about this. I never saw as many Members waiting to speak come in early. They were enjoying the air conditioning in the Chamber. Climate change is real and we have to be ready for it. We had amendments ruled out of order. I will take it up with the Ceann Comhairle but we did offer alternatives around battery storage. We knew we were facing these energy emergencies and the Government did nothing other than bring forward this Bill, which only ties us into more fossil fuel use. Our amendment provides clear legal definitions of "temporary". We have to outline what "temporary" is. "Temporary" could mean ten years to one person. We are proposing a ten-year limit on operations with a review every three years and with a clear expiry clause renewed by the Oireachtas. Our amendment No. 9 also seeks plans for maintenance and plans for decommissioning the unit if it is going to be temporary and for emergency use only. We want the Minister to bring a report to the Houses of the Oireachtas every year, so that we can make sure this is temporary. We have to focus on temporary and emergency use of the emergency reserves. They cannot become a permanent feature of our energy supply. We have to prevent the normalisation of the use of fossil fuels to keep the lights on. Our amendments will guarantee that.
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An Teachta Healy-Rae should correct the record. It was not a bit of rain that caused the Famine. The failure of one crop did not cause the Famine that decimated-----
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----- our population.
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Shame on you. You are a disgrace.
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Deputy Healy-Rae can support our next amendment, because it is relevant.
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