Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-15
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

Ireland will continue to produce its own energy, but it will be in renewables overwhelmingly. We have a very poor record in terms of oil and gas exploration over the decades. Kinsale gas was first brought onshore in the 1970s, and we have had Corrib. Barryroe never showed any prospects. Barryroe could have been exploited if it had the prospects which Deputy O'Flynn said it had decades before any legislative prohibition on oil and gas exploration.
We are overly dependent on imported fossil fuels. I accept that. There needs to be a strong grid connection with Europe and the UK. The interconnection with France will be a significant milestone. I hope it will come on stream next year. I met the Spanish Prime Minister recently, and we agreed that we would explore a grid connection between Spain and Ireland. There is potentially strong European funding for greater interconnection and grid connection across Europe. That is a key strategy of the European Union. The reason our Anglo-Irish summits are so important is because we have a very strong economic relationship but we also have a strong energy relationship. We have the gas interconnectors with the United Kingdom. We are exploring with the UK further combined work in terms of offshore wind in particular and how we can complement supply chains in the context of the generation of energy through offshore wind.
In terms of nuclear, again, the investment in nuclear is enormous. We are putting about €18 billion into the grid over the next five years' investment to both absorb additional demand and also to further integrate renewables into the grid expertly, which we do very well as a country. I see solar as a very significant growth area. Solar has grown exponentially over the last two to three years in terms of rooftops and so on, but a lot of companies are using solar, which is reducing their dependence on imported fossil fuels. In companies like Eli Lilly in Kinsale, for example, 25% of its energy is powered by a solar farm in the environments of the factory. There is rooftop solar in PepsiCo in Carrigaline. Many other companies are moving in that direction. I suggest the direction of travel has to be in the renewables area. I do believe in climate change. I know a lot of people do not; I do. It is interesting. I take the Deputy's point about nuclear-----

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-15