I am thankful for the opportunity to speak on this Bill today. Let me state from the outset that safety must always come first. Every family, every worker and every pensioner has a right to know that the fuel heating their homes and cooking their dinners is safe, properly regulated and overseen by a system that is fit for purpose. Safety cannot, however, become a convenient excuse for forgetting rural Ireland or for piling more paperwork, fees and levies onto small operators and local communities who already struggle to stay afloat. This Bill deals with both natural gas and LPG. In urban areas, the gas grid is taken for granted but in much of rural Ireland, there is no gas grid, there are no pipelines and there are no grand plans. What is there instead is reliance, in places, on LPG, on bottled gas, on bulk tanks and on small networks serving estates and apartment blocks that were built outside the reach of the great Dublin-centric energy map. We learned from an investigation by the CRU that dozens of small LPG networks were operating without any proper regulatory cover, not out of neglect or intent, but because the law simply did not recognise them. Developers, management companies and volunteers found themselves supplying gas without a licensing system designed for their scale. That was a gap in the law and a safety risk, and it needed to be addressed. In that respect, bringing these networks into a proper licensing and safety structure makes sense. Families deserve peace of mind. They deserve clarity on who is responsible when something goes wrong. The Bill seeks to introduce two classes of LPG licence and replace the informal safety case system with a statutory safety permit system. It gives the CRU more tools with which to investigate incidents and to intervene when it must. Those elements are reasonable, and Independent Ireland supports the principle of regulating for safety. There are some very real concerns, however, and I want to speak plainly about them. First is the cost. We are told again that there will be no cost to the Exchequer. What we are not told is who will actually pay. Every time the CRU gets a new function, and every time there is a new permit, a new levy, a new licence or a new compliance burden, it eventually lands on the bill of the ordinary customer, it lands on the pensioner filling their bulk tank, it lands on the working family paying for LPG cylinders, and it lands on the landlord in rural Cork trying to keep an old apartment block heated. If we are not honest about that in this House, then we are doing a disservice to those people. The second concern is fairness. A class 2 LPG operator running a handful of residential connections in a rural estate is not the same as a national gas transmission operator. We cannot and should not regulate them as if they were. We need clear guarantees that the regulatory burden will not choke small operators or force estates to abandon LPG networks entirely. When that happens, homes go cold and rents go up, and nobody in the Government will take responsibility for that outcome. The third concern is energy security. Safety is crucial but supply matters, too. Ireland has backed itself into a corner by shutting down options before alternatives exist. We are now talking about regulating LPG at the same time as we refuse to talk honestly about where that gas will come from in ten or 20 years' time. We cannot keep pretending that interconnectors from Britain are a long-term energy strategy. They are not. They are a gamble, one that leaves our homes, our hospitals and our businesses exposed. This touches directly on the issue of LNG, and in particular Shannon LNG. I have said it before and I will say it again: rejecting LNG on ideological grounds while importing gas through longer and less secure routes makes no sense. Other small countries have diversified supply, built resilience and protected their people. Ireland instead congratulates itself on shutting doors and hoping for the best. This is not climate leadership. It is wishful thinking dressed up as strategy. Let us be realistic. We cannot electrify everything overnight. We cannot heat every rural home with heat pumps that families cannot afford and that do not work properly in older, poorly insulated buildings. Until genuine alternatives exist and are accessible, LPG and natural gas will remain essential and policy must reflect that reality instead of pretending it away. I want to talk about respect for local communities. Too often, decisions are made in Dublin and imposed on rural areas with no engagement, no listening and no understanding. If we are going to regulate local LPG networks, then we need to work with the people who actually run them. We need simple compliance, clear communication and fair timelines, not a box-ticking exercise designed for consultants in office blocks. Independent Ireland asks the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, to consider bringing forward amendments on Committee Stage to ensure there is: no increase in domestic heating costs as a result of this Bill; a fair and proportionate regulatory system for class 2 LPG operators; transparency from the CRU on levies, costs and compliance impacts; a national energy security plan that includes LNG as an option; and rural-proofing of all energy legislation placed before this House. Safety is essential but so is common sense. Regulation must protect people, not punish them. If we want to genuinely secure Ireland’s energy future, we must stop closing doors and start planning for the needs of every community, urban and rural, and not just the few within the M50. I want to talk about safety, including in my own constituency. We saw what happened in Creeslough with the ten people who were tragically killed there. I sympathise with all their families. We also have to look at Whiddy Island. In 1979, there were 51 people killed there and the State has never apologised. We really cannot get to the bottom of what did happen on that fatal night. It is a shocking indictment. Several times, I have called on this and previous Governments for a proper investigation and for an apology to the families of the 51 people who perished that night, including relations of my own. They were good, hard-working men who went out to work and never came home. It was a terrible tragedy in 1979 and it will never be forgotten. Here we are 47 years later and people might think we have forgotten in Bantry but we have not. We will always respect those people for the remainder of our lives. Surely be to God respect should be shown in here too so that families can have some kind of closure. It is something that I have called for. Michael Kingston, the head of the relatives and friends' organisation down there, has fought gallantly but has literally been ignored. He is not going to give up the fight, and I give him great credit for that. I also commend the local fire brigades in Kinsale and Carrigaline. There was a gas leak two weeks ago and most of Kinsale town had to be evacuated because of it, but thankfully it was all dealt with professionally by our professionals out there. I pay tribute to each one of them, as well as the gardaí and the head of the fire station in Kinsale. They are tremendous people down there and I know them well. I often meet them and talk to them. They certainly had very difficult circumstances on their hands less than two weeks ago. Thankfully, there was no fatality and nobody was hurt. It was dealt with professionally but lots of people had to be evacuated because of the dangers of the type of gas that people are dealing with. It was with gas being delivered where there was a leak. As I said, these things happen. We will give 100% support to anything that brings in safety but we have to make sure that the costs are not passed on to the customer. Customers were looking for some energy relief this year but, unfortunately, they were not given it. I know it is not an election year, so maybe if there is an election coming soon, they might get that energy relief again. That is of huge importance, but safety and common sense are things we will always support inside here. I would ask that the Government give the time to sit down as a Cabinet to look at the situation that happened at Whiddy Island and to think of those 51 people who perished 47 years ago and to this day have not got justice. While there is a breath in my body inside in this Parliament, I must stand for those people, and I will continue to stand and support those people until we get justice for the Whiddy Island disaster.

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