Danny Healy-Rae: Welcomes Shannon LNG and slams energy policy

I'm glad to get the opportunity to welcome that Shannon LNG has got approval to bring in gas and to store gas and to give us another option because we have a duty to the taxpayers and to the people outside, around the country, in every county including Kerry to deliver energy to them at the cheapest rate possible because too well I have said here inside in front of you Minister many days that since we closed Bournemouth the cost of electricity has gone up each day, every day since we closed Bournemouth and the worst mistake that any government made was to close it down in one go until we were assured that we had enough energy options more wind turbines, more whatever it is, we could be deriving more energy from our rivers but we're deprived of doing that and stopped doing that, the Sweeneys in Kilgarven made their own electricity back in the mid-thirties and the Shays in Kinmear made it for the town of Kinmear around the same time and we're not allowed to go near a river to do anything like that now we can't do anything like that now and you see what's happening here in case people don't know it for the last number of years we're buying gas at its dearest price because it's only coming from the one route from northeast of us and that's why we're paying more for electricity and the other reason is we have an energy regulator that has no account of it and talking about climate targets, when I know and a lot of you know, a lot of people are afraid to say no matter what we do in the desert we won't change the weather, the weather has been changing back over the centuries in the 12th and the 13th centuries it changed from warm to cold and then in the 15th and 16th centuries massive amounts of rain in the 1740s when the family talked about people were wiped out because it never stopped raining for two years in 1890, there were no combustible engines at that time and there was way less cattle in 1896 12 acres of bog were washed down 12 miles into the lakes of Killarney from Guinea and blocked every bridge on the way down there was 11 men above inside the field in the 1890s as well in the Cladagh Valley making up here and before they knew where they were they were all washed down the Flesh River and into the lakes of Killarney again and them are true facts there have been storms and there have been nights of the big winds and all those different times and I have the dates of them and them are facts there was no human intervention at that time and humans couldn't be blamed for the activity that changed the weather so a lot of people would want to realize that and a report has come out from some scientists in Europe and I don't see the government coming forward with it depicting that a lot of what the climatologists are saying that they're wrong and that the figures that they're going in are totally wrong and absolutely wrong and I'll bring back in here one of these days as soon as it's put into my hands but I do welcome after many false dawns that Shannon Eldon G will get the green light to go ahead it will mean a lot for the county of Killarney especially the northern part of the county and indeed parts of Clare where you represent and it will mean a lot of employment and help to sustain people to stay in Clare and to stay more importantly than anything else in our country and to build confidence in it by staying there we do need other options for energy until we have enough wind power and ways of storing the energy that's created by the wind turbines we do need something in the meantime and people are under savage pressure we can't be talking here inside on the one hand that the cost of living has gone up and what is the government doing about it, what is anyone doing about it the cost of energy is the cost of all the trouble, is the cause of all the trouble people on the road buying petrol and diesel and people at home buying home heating oil and gas to keep themselves warm people are entitled, these generation of people that we have are entitled to stay warm as anyone and to the fright of God to think that all people are afraid to put sands of turf into the fire now and at the same time there's bombs and drones going off every day and lighting the skies in the mid east and in Ukraine and between Ukraine and Russia and we're telling people here that it's wrong to be burning turf or to be cutting turf we've gone stone mad, out of our minds altogether to be telling people them kind of stories because in case that you don't know it, people are talking about this climate change and all the amounts of money that's going into it, narrowing roads for the sake of climate change widening footpaths and cycleways and no one's cycling because when they do travel whatever, 100 yards or more of these cycleways they must go on to the narrow road, the ordinary road and it's not making any sense we narrow the road going back forth to the national secondary road Councillor Johnny Healy-Rae said at a recent meeting in Kerry County Council, we have to make a boring out of it the national secondary road that starts off from Killarney going around the ring of Kerry made a boring out of it that's what we've done, two anything can hardly pass there now without the mirrors getting stuck in each other that's what we've done in the name of climate change so, dimmer the ridiculous things, look Chairman, I'm glad I especially wanted to recognise the fact that Shannon LNG has gotten the green light after so many false dawns and many individuals and companies have so much money put into that at one stage and that's going back a number of years, they had 60 million invested in it that was people's own money that they were prepared to print it, that they worked hard for and they thought that this was a way of helping our country, at least we'll have it and if people can come forward with other ideas for creating energy, please do and there's no one here stopping you doing that but do not make the people pay any more for energy than what they're paying for electricity at the present time to go up 16%, to go up 18% and then to prove that there's no regulators from other companies dropped it down to 12% and there's no law or order in the regulation of the cost of electricity at the present time and the poor people that have to go on the road in the mornings to pay the massive amount that they're paying with carbon tax costs added for fuel to go on the road to work or to deliver stuff with lorries whatever it is, whether it is materials for house building or for food for supermarkets it's all costing money and massive money and we could be doing a lot better and doing a lot more for the cost of energy we have oil off of West Cork and we have gas off of the Kerry coast and we're not being allowed to tap into that at all bring it from the nearest point so the poor people at home will pay for it look, it's time we copped on and listened to other people because there are other things besides climate change that need addressing too and it's fine if everything else started out but the people at the present time are driven down to the ground with the cost of living no matter how much they're earning they have nothing left but the cost of houses and the cost of energy to heat them and the cost of energy to go to work thank you very much, let's go on