Ken O'Flynn: Reverse the 2021 Oil & Gas Ban?

Thank you László. Taoiseach, last week you told Radio Tel Aviv Sharon that you were open to all forms of energy supply. You also acknowledged the fragility of Irish dependence on imported fuels. That emission is important and it's important to this house because Ireland now imports approximately 86% of its energy, one of the highest dependence rates in Europe. At the same time, your government made a deliberate decision back in 2021 to ban oil and gas exploration. Not a forced decision, not an inevitable decision, but a policy choice from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party at that time. So I'd like to ask you directly Taoiseach, do you accept that the banning of domestic exploration while remaining overwhelmingly dependent on imports has left Ireland dangerously exposed? As you know, this country is sitting on a potential offshore resource, including the Barry Row field of Cork, close to your constituency and mine, which independent assessment suggests it could contain up to 1.6 billion barrels of oil. That's probably about 157 billion euros of oil there Taoiseach. Taoiseach, I put to you, can you say openly that all energy options are, sorry, can I put to you that you can say that all energy options are open while activity and actively prohibiting them by law? So I'd ask you these three specific questions. Will your government reverse the 2021 ban on oil and gas exploration and allow Ireland to at least give access to develop their own resources? Will you commit to reviewing and repealing the legislation that prohibited the Nuclear Energy Act that was first introduced to this house in 1999 and continuously held within the Development Act of 2024? Because Taoiseach, the position is not credible in this state. Ireland bans nuclear generated energy at home and yet through the Celtic interconnector we import the same nuclear energy directly from France. And that's not climate leadership Taoiseach, I put to you. I would say that that is a policy contradiction. And thirdly Taoiseach, do you accept that Ireland is exposed to this crisis is not just global in origin but domestic in design? Norway faces the same markets. The United Kingdom faces the same pressures. But they produce energy. We import it. They have options. We have none Taoiseach. And I would say this is about not abandoning renewable energies. I see the importance of renewable energies. But this is about realism Taoiseach. We now know that how we account for renewable energy in this country is a very small share of the total energy demand. We have to face the reality that oil and gas is here for decades to come. And if we sped up our dependence and we sped up wind energy, wave energy and the rest of it, we have to use oil and gas for at least this generation if not the next generation. So the simple question to you Taoiseach is will Ireland produce some of its own energy or will we continue to import energy that is coming at a market price? Ireland will continue to produce its own energy. But it will be in renewables overwhelmingly. We've had a very poor record in terms of oil and gas exploration over the decades. I think the Kinsale gas field, I think that came on the shore in the 1970s. And we have had Corrob. Barry Rowe never showed any prospects. And Barry Rowe could have been exploited if it had the prospects that you're saying it had decades before any legislative prohibition on oil and gas discovery into the future. We are overly dependent on imported fossil fuels, except that. And I think we need to connect – there needs to be a strong grid connection with Europe. And indeed the interconnection with France will be a significant milestone. Hopefully that will come on stream next year. And also obviously with the UK. I met with the Spanish Prime Minister recently and we agreed that we would explore a grid connection with Spain, between Spain and Ireland. And there's strong European potential funding for greater interconnection and grid connection across Europe. And that's a key strategy of the European Union. We have – the reason why our Anglo-Irish summits are so important, because we have very strong economic relationship, but we also have a strong energy relationship. And we have the interconnectors, the gas interconnectors with the United Kingdom. And we're exploring with the United Kingdom further combined work in terms of offshore wind in particular, and how we can complement supply chains and so forth in terms of the generation of energy through offshore wind. In terms of nuclear, again, the investment in nuclear is enormous. And we're putting a lot into – we're putting about 18 billion into the grid over the next five years' investment to both absorb additional demand and also to further integrate renewables with – into the grid expertly, which we do very well as a country. I see solar as a very significant growth area. And solar over the last two to three years has grown exponentially, both in terms of rooftop and so on. But a lot of companies are using solar, which is reducing their dependence on important fossil fuels. Companies like Lilly in Kinsale, for example, 25 percent of their energy is powered by a solar farm in the environments of the factory. In Pepsi in Karigalang, there is a rooftop solar. And many other companies are moving in that direction. And the direction of travel, I would suggest, has to be in the renewables area. I do believe in climate change. I know a lot of people don't. I do. And I think it's interesting. I take your point about nuclear. But actually, that which did most – that energy source which did most damage to the planet was actually fossil fuels. Thank you, Deputy. Thank you, Taoiseach, for his reply. But, Taoiseach, you're in contradiction with exactly what you said on RTE over a week ago when you said that you were open to all forms of energy supply. I've asked you quite clearly, are you willing to look at the policy where the government has said, in 1999, we're going to ban the nuclear? You've come to the house and you've told me – I assume, Taoiseach, you've read the independent analysis and independent report in Barry Rowe as well. Because I didn't realise that you were, along with other expertise that you have, that you have an expertise in oil – in oil refinery and finding oil. But I've invested enough of it. But I would say to you, Taoiseach, it's all very well to talk about renewable energy. And I do see the importance of renewable energy. And I witnessed renewable energy when Spain – when the grid in Spain took out Portugal, all of Spain, and most of France. Actually, just up to Paris. And if you remember that, that was an oversupply. Thank you, Deputy. Which we'd never gotten to the end of that. So, there is challenges when it comes to renewable energy as well, Taoiseach. Taoiseach, will you respond? Taoiseach, to respond. There are challenges, yes. And that's why we have to invest in storage as well. And that's a technology that's developing fast as well. And I was at a recent investment in the Midlands, in Offaly, which I believe Offaly and Leash can become a real powerhouse for energy into the future, with a lot of industrial development alongside of it. But that investment was from a Korean company, with an Irish company, partnering with an Irish company in terms of storage. And yes, the integration of renewables into the grid. We have a good record in that respect in this country. And I think we need to keep striving to do more of that. And there are other forms, like anaerobic digestion. But Deputy, I'll put it to you. Given your capacity for campaigning, and any group that develops an opposition to something, if a nuclear facility was proposed for Cork North Central, I'm not so sure what side of the coin you would be on. Thank you. Thank you, Deputy. Thank you.