Energy Infrastructure
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-15
============================================================

Frankie Feighan (FG), Sligo-Leitrim

I thank Senator Kennelly for raising this very important issue. The Government position on the need for a State-operated strategic gas reserve in the form of floating storage and a regassification unit that will store liquified natural gas has been very clear. The strategic gas emergency reserve is a priority project of a strategic nature, required to mitigate the major consequences for our society and our economy that would arise if Ireland was to experience an interruption to our gas supplies via the subsea interconnection. As I said, it is not intended for commercial use. As the planning application for the Shannon LNG project currently with An Coimisiún Pleanála is a private project, the Minister for climate and the Department have no function. However, there are difficult, choppy waters ahead. The Government must have cool heads and we must all try to work together to navigate this very important issue and many other important issues we will face in the future. I thank the Senator again.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-15