The Bill is about security and I am blue in the face screaming and asking for quick changes to this. I also concur with Deputy Byrne about the possibility of using nuclear power, particularly for its efficiency. I propose that we put it in his constituency, because the problem with most issues in this country is the Nimbyism. No one wants it in their own constituency, even though it would benefit the Irish people. I also concur that we are importing from France and we are going to make ourselves more dependent. I have said before and will say again that during the world war Churchill tried to limit the amount of coal coming to Ireland to force Dev's hand and end our neutrality and one of the worst things a country can be is energy dependent and to not have security of supply and security of infrastructure. Ultimately, this is the truth for the Irish people and for Irish businesses. We have seen that in the past few days. We are debating oil reserves. We are continuously discussing the LNG terminal proposal at the climate and energy committee. We saw, in 24 hours, a sharp rise of nearly 23% in the global cost of LNG. Does this show that this proposal to add energy security is not doing that at all? Would we be putting it into a decentralised grid? If adding one more point of failure to add energy security is what we are proposing, adding multiple points of failure is what we should be doing. Let us consider what the Germans are doing. They are moving from a petrostate to an electrostate. This is happening across Europe but it seems that we are not acting fast enough. I welcome some of the work that ESB and EirGrid have been doing and I welcome that there was a huge amount of work done on the system before they started. There are amazing engineers working there who I have met. It is just not happening fast enough. The Government's proposed private wires Bill will speed up the process and I hope that my Bill will get drafted before it passes. I mentioned the Laffan facility, one of the most important LNG hubs, previously and how it has driven up the price across the globe. Through higher bills, higher costs for businesses and a loss in competitiveness, we are importing the vast majority of our energy. However, if other European countries had the potential that we have on our seabed, with offshore renewable energy, ORE, and with wind, they would be grabbing it and supplying it. They would be a producer of green hydrogen. They would use gravity storage. They would be use everything and benefit their people as much as possible. What happened to the majority of our oil and gas? We gave it to a foreign country to benefit their people. There are people in these countries who were benefiting from Irish oil and gas. We still are not building quick enough. I welcome some of the developments from ESB in respect of ORE but it is not being done fast enough. Ireland is reliant on foreign direct investment, FDI, and if it leaves us exposed, it is not good. We cannot build an energy system based on dependence. At a meeting of the climate and energy committee earlier, I was reading the recent data comparing energy prices across Europe. We had representatives of Engineering Ireland before us. It was a great discussion. The other Deputies and the Senators on the committee were talking about the cheaper countries, Sweden and Finland, and the most expensive, the UK, but who is coming in near second only Ireland? The conclusion is unavoidable. If that gap continues, business people are the people who are struggling but we can protect them. As I always say, I do not like to come in here and give out; I like to offer a few solutions. We all know there have been some changes to port marshalling where now we can invest in ports. I, again, welcome the investment in Cork Port that has allowed for possible more ORE to be developed but I know from replies to my recent parliamentary questions that other ports are being examined. This needs to be done. Belfast has a backlog of free bookings for its ORE for another country. Why cannot we have more ports that can develop ORE? Onshore wind facilities are much easier to build but it is not as efficient. It has a longer lifespan, though. We are still in many ways a petrostate. We are dependent on imported fossil fuels. Now we were going to be spending close to €1 billion on energy security, which will last us how many days if we did lose connection? It is one more point of failure. What we need is private wires, of course, but also a simpler system that gives the regulator, the CRU, the authority to approve projects whether they make sense without the unnecessary barriers or certain exemptions, because we see how that happens. We need a single regulator as the decision maker. We have seen it across planning, for example. When there are too many people making decisions not in parallel but systematically, it delays everything. If we put one person in charge of this decision-making for our energy system, it will benefit the Irish people. It is all about resilience. We are saying that, whether it is invested in our long duration energy storage so we stop wasting renewable energy - millions of euro is being lost by solar farms and wind farms when there is too much sun and too much energy - the acceleration of our offshore wind, which I have spoken about, marine energy or green hydrogen, which we could speak about. Professor James Carton, my old engineering professor, has spoken to the Department about this. He might have persuaded me while he was teaching me in college to be pro-green hydrogen. I spoke about the delivery of port infrastructure and, crucially, the decentralisation of energy production. Another issue that we have constantly referred to, and other Deputies have mentioned in the debate, is a very quick solution. People in apartment dwellings who do not have access due to a management company owning their apartment building cannot build their own solar systems. A plug-in solar system scheme implemented by the German Government has had a brilliant uptake, so much so that it is doing it again. When I asked why plug-in solar was not allowed in Ireland, I was told by the Department that there was a consultation done in 2024. I have asked who gave the bad reviews, because I presume that it is solar installers who do not want someone to be able to plug in a system in their apartments. In north Dublin, I represent people who are financially struggling and living in apartments who would love to lower their energy bills. This is a quick simple fix that needs only a regulation change that we can provide. Constituents have been crying out for it since I have been in here, for instance, renters and single mothers who are struggling at the moment who can lower their bills. Plug-in solar is a clear option. If it was not safe - one of the answers I got back from the Department was that due to EU regulations it cannot be done - how are the Germans doing it? It is low cost, it is scalable and it empowers people. That is the best part. We are still behind and if we are serious about energy independence and reducing people's bills, it is a quick fix. Another issue we need to discuss is how we are still relying heavily on gas. I understand, and think it is funny, when people say, "the energy transition". It is more like the energy demolition and rebuild, because the changes that we need in the State to be energy independent are going to be huge. I welcome the investment that the Government has committed to ESB, but the speed at which things are being done is the reason the private wires Bill is being proposed and why we are missing out on investment opportunities. Foreign multinationals, when they are coming to Ireland, cannot believe the delays in building small-scale infrastructure for renewables to power high energy users, industrial users or someone who requires energy. The problem is we are within a system where expensive gas is setting the price of electricity even when most of the power generated is far cheaper and we need separate low-cost renewables from the expensive fossil backup and we need to expand long-term contracts, which was mentioned at the committee, and reward storage and flexibility. It would allow consumers to benefit from cheap electricity when the price changes. We should not have a fixed price, but we should also not be averaging low-cost energy into permanently high bills. The Irish people should benefit when the Irish system built by us is producing energy. We also need to rethink the grid and building more infrastructure. I have to let Deputy Danny Healy-Rae in. I wish to conclude by saying this Bill matters, but it is only part of the answer. The real challenge is bigger. It is about moving out of dependence and into independence. I welcome the development of the Minister, Deputy Chambers' critical infrastructure Bill. I hope Government will use that to benefit the Irish people and to make a change as fast as possible. I have given the Minister of State one solution about plug-in solar, and I would love to see that implemented. We can go back to private wires and long duration energy storage another time.

Sentiment score: 0.14