Ivana Bacik: Cut Bills with Renewables, Not Nuclear

Deputy Batchelor. Beire maith agat, Ciann Comhairle. Taoiseach, rising costs are blowing a 2,000 euro hole in average household budgets this year. That's in today's Irish Independent. The cost of food, of health insurance and energy are all soaring. Ireland has the highest household electricity prices in the EU as Eurostatus confirmed. So your words of sympathy for struggling families are meaningless because you're failing to take action to cut energy costs. You're hunting with the hounds and running with the hare. And the hare's got your brains too, it seems, because we see a harebrained notion from Deputy James O'Connor that nuclear somehow represents a solution to the crushing cost of energy here. But as James hasn't acknowledged, in countries with a planning system that actually works, nuclear still takes years and years, 15 years to come on stream at a minimum. Taoiseach, the stakes for hard-pressed households and PAYE workers are just too high for this sort of public brainstorming exercise from Fianna Fáil TDs. Now, we in Labour welcome national conversations about energy security, of course, but not at the expense of actual delivery. And let's look at delivery. In Ireland, we're still, at best, four years away from delivering any offshore wind energy. And that delay is due to lack of government ambition and government focus. It's deeply regrettable, because unlike nuclear, wind power offers feasible, scalable projects. And Taoiseach, other countries have led the way on renewables. Take Spain, a European leader. More than half of Spanish electricity generated from renewables. Their government, a Labour government, saw which way the proverbial wind was blowing four years ago, when Russia mounted its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. And Spain rapidly ramped up renewable energy capacity, achieving 75% low-carbon electricity generation last year. Solar and wind power, significantly lowering energy bills in Spain. So why aren't we doing the same? Our climate boasts plenty of wind, but without turbines, it's going to waste, Taoiseach. And as a result, people here are wasting hard-pressed money, filling the coffers of oil and gas giants. Households here pay 500 euro more per year on electricity than the EU average. So why doesn't your government focus on rapid delivery of renewables? Instead of delivery, it seems that Fianna Fáil indeed are the Don Quixote of Irish politics. You're frightened of windmills. What else can explain the delay? There's so much more we could do. It's not just wind energy. Plug-in solar, enhanced battery capacity. Renewables can drastically reduce household bills, and we need them to cut emissions and to meet climate goals too. Because you're failing to insulate people from the cost of energy now, and also failing to ensure the future of our younger generations. Your go-to solution for energy shocks is subsidies for fossil fuels, and energy companies are reaping windfall gains. So where's the windfall tax, Taoiseach, which could fund targeted energy credits, as Labour has thought? And where's your climate action plan for 2026? June, January still hasn't appeared. Taoiseach will respond. Time is up, Deputy Bacik, your time is up. Taoiseach will respond. The bottom line here is that you mentioned Spain was 50% of renewables in terms of electricity generation. Last February, we were 50% of electricity generation was renewable. And you're just genuinely misleading the House, or I believe you're misleading the House, in your political characterization of the government in respect of renewables. We've been driving renewables for quite some time, quite over many successive governments. And in terms of offshore wind, I've established a clearinghouse in my department that meets with the industry, with the departments, with the regulators, to remove systemic potential barriers to offshore wind delivery. We've had a series of auctions. We have a number of offshore wind farms in the planning process. Surely you must know that. And why do you exaggerate and make silly statements about Don Quixote and all that kind of nonsense? I think it's far too serious for that. And you say you're interested in national conversations and then lambast Deputy O'Connor for initiating a national conversation. So where's the consistency in that approach or the logic to what you were saying? France is a very good example. We have a combination of sources, nuclear being one. And OK, it will take time. But we do have to have these serious conversations and examination. And I made it very clear at the weekend that our main focus was on offshore wind, that we had made substantial progress on onshore wind. Because the reason for our high cost of electricity in Ireland is, yes, an isolated grid in terms of a lack of interconnection. We have two gas interconnectors to Britain. And we were on the cusp of completing an interconnector with France. We're actually discussing with Spain. We've initiated discussions on an interconnector and with Spain because Europe needs a very comprehensive grids package to reduce our historic dependency on imported fossil fuels. And we rely on imported gas quite substantially, which increases and exacerbates the price situation in Ireland vis-a-vis others across country. And purchasing power parity, we're the fifth highest, too high in the European Union. And yes, the structural reform is the way to deal with that. But that will take time. No point in pretending it will not. Offshore wind, we have our targets out to 2030. We have our targets to 2040 of up to 20 gigawatts. And I believe we can achieve that. And if you talk to the industry now, they acknowledge that government is engaging very proactively on that topic. But also, then, we do have to alleviate pressure. You scoffed at the idea of subsidies for fossil fuels. At the moment, people do need supports. I'm surprised. Are you now against what we did in terms of subsidizing the costs for people who are out there motoring or indeed for those involved in our trade? Thank you, Taoiseach. Deputy Bacik will now respond. Deputy Bacik. Thank you, Taoiseach. Things are very serious. They're very serious for the many, many thousands of families and households now in arrears on their energy bills. They're far too serious to be toying around with distractions around nuclear when we know the solution lies in the scalable projects of renewables. And you speak about a government focus on renewables. But it's clearly evident, particularly since the Green Party left government, how there has been a slowdown in government commitments on climate and on renewables. Take last week. Nearly 60 countries met in Colombia for intensive talks to forge a road map to phase out fossil fuels. Ireland's decision to send a senior civil servant, rather than the climate minister, speaks volumes. Taoiseach, you're not taking this seriously. I use Spain as the example. Let's look at the Eurostat figures. Last year, Irish electricity cost 40.42 cent per kilowatt hour, 40 per cent over the euro average and well above the Spanish cost of 24 cent. So the figures speak for themselves. The figures of the households in arrears speak for themselves. And we know the answer. And in opposition, we supported the MARA legislation. But there's still been no urgency on rolling out renewables to help struggling households. I think it's a very false and big political untruth to suggest that since the Greens left, we somehow reduced our commitment to renewables. It's just a deliberate misrepresentation for political purposes. And that's all. But it's false. And it's untrue. And actually, since this government was formed, we established the clearinghouse, which my good colleague, former Minister Eamon Ryan, refused to do. And industry did want to engage. And the one difference we've made here, we've facilitated the engagement of industry to stop all the them and us approach and to work systemically at what are the barriers to successfully deploying offshore wind farms. And we are making progress, Deputy. And there are significant challenges globally in that respect, in terms of supply chain issues, in terms of the United States approach to wind. But we are in a good position in terms of the auctions that we've already held and in terms of the submissions to Commission Planola that have already occurred. And we've had engagements with MARA. We've had engagements with Commission Planola. And the critical infrastructure bill will be very significant in enabling us to prioritise what is a critical issue for the country.