As a Member who fully appreciates the need for us all to drive, and drive enthusiastically, the development of the renewable energy sector, I am very conscious that the concentration in recent years has been on the offshore energy sector. It would be beneficial to all of us to have a clearer understanding of the timescales involved in the development of this sector. We have spoken about being able to become net exporters of energy. There are those in the sector who tell me this is a very long way away. While all of this is happening, we are seeing throughout the country an increase in the number of biogas plants being developed. They are very positive when they are happening at farm level but when they begin to take on an industrial-scale size, they pose some practical difficulties in some areas and we do not appear to have a national strategy to deal with them. The question of battery energy storage systems is also problematic, not least because in this country we do not appear to have the technology to deal with fires that might occur in situations where large-scale battery energy storage systems have been developed. When will something be done by way of a strategy in this regard?

Sentiment score: 0.25

13. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the EU leaders' informal retreat on 3 February. [4524/25]

Sentiment score: 0.07

I find myself in large agreement with Deputy Daly. Like the Taoiseach, I was born in 1960. Back in the sixties, for entertainment we had a very strong diet of American movies, TV programmes and sitcoms. That might have helped us come to the view of the US as the land of opportunity, a champion of democracy and human rights on the world stage and, if you like, a self-appointed world police force. If this was ever true, it certainly is manifestly not true today. The Irish people, our representatives and the Taoiseach are hugely invested in the plight of the Palestinian people and the case of the Ukrainian population. Our commitment to a fair and lasting peace is unquestionable. If we were to look to the US to be an honest broker and a defender of the rule of law and human rights, we see that everything has changed. We see Trump, whose politics repulse me. My revulsion at Trump's politics is not tempered in any way by the fact that he has been elected. Indeed, I am more concerned and apprehensive as a result of that. We see Trump trying to commandeer Ukrainian natural resources, proposing a discussion with Putin on the divisions of the spoils of war, the divisions of land and the remaining resources, such as who will have control of the nuclear power plants. We have also heard his appalling plan that Gaza would become the Mar-a-Lago of the East. I do not know if he wants to own it himself, but he sees American as owning it. This is a travesty and demonstrates clearly to us, and to any sane and sensible person in the world, that we need a new world order. We need new leaders to step forward. I put it to the Taoiseach that our own Ursula von der Leyen and other leaders in the EU such as himself have the capacity to provide the inspiration and moral leadership that we are never going to get from President Trump.

Sentiment score: 0.21

29. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his recent attendance at the commemoration for the liberation of Auschwitz. [12018/25]

Sentiment score: 0.00