I raise the possibility of having nuclear energy in Ireland. As people across both sides of the House will be aware, I am bringing forward legislation to remove the prohibition on generation of power by nuclear fission. I would like to get an idea from the Tánaiste, the leader of our coalition partners in government, of his views on whether this is possible. As we are in the House and it is being discussed by Members on both sides, Ireland now has the most expensive energy market in the European Union. We need to ask ourselves how we got here. Other parties on this side of the House have been in government over the course of the past 15 years. I just heard the leader of the Labour Party describe my proposal as a hare-brained notion.
Sentiment score: 0.25
Sometimes I wonder whether Róisín Shortall had a point but I will say this. We have the possibility to follow what other countries in the 27 EU countries have done already by implementing nuclear power. We can look at Finland. The grand committee of the Finish Parliament was in Leinster House two weeks ago. Finland has the same population as Ireland and 40% of its energy comes from nuclear power. As a consequence, its citizens, small businesses and the economy of Finland have the cheapest energy in the European Union. We have had lots of discussion about renewables. Looking at the potential of nuclear energy and understanding the strategic aims and objectives of decarbonising our economy, common sense will tell us from what other countries have done successfully, that nuclear energy is the way to go. The technology is changing. It is safer in the era of AI and with what it can do for engineering it is now easier than ever to do this successfully. Is it time we looked at this as an option, as other countries have done successfully? People here will always pick the worst examples of where nuclear has gone wrong. I understand that is for reasons of safety and because of debates we have had in times gone by, but can we not acknowledge 30, 40 or 50 years later that things have changed, it is safer and, as a consequence of our inaction and the mistake of putting that prohibition in place, we have put ourselves in a vulnerable position when it comes to energy security and energy sovereignty. We have the opportunity to become, as other countries have, a cheaper place for people to get energy and to bring down bills in this country once and for all.
Sentiment score: 0.26
The Tánaiste's comments are welcome and the fact that we are having this debate is a healthy thing. Input from all sides of the House would be welcome, and that is why I am proud to bring this forward. We need to discuss dealing with our future demand. We know we are looking at a 45% increase in energy need in Ireland up to 2034. That cannot be delivered by renewables alone. We will be heavily depending on carbon energy to do that. We need to face the fact that Ireland could be fined €3.5 billion to €8 billion of public money annually by the European Commission if we fail to meet our decarbonisation targets. This is the great conundrum. We have a population that has grown by 1 million since 2006 and is expected to grow another 1 million in the same period of time in the future. We will have a 45% increase in energy demand.
Sentiment score: 0.24
We have a strong economy at full employment. We need to grab the bull by the horns and plan ahead because if you fail to plan ahead, it is much like politics, in that you could end up like the Labour Party - out of government for over a decade and irrelevant.
Sentiment score: 0.50