Electricity Supply: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-30 ============================================================ PJ Murphy (FG), Agricultural Panel I second the motion with great pleasure. I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to discuss it. Since the early days of the State, electricity generation and the ESB, along with infrastructure such as Ardnacrusha, has been one of the great success stories of the State. We are almost unique in western Europe in that we as a State retain ownership of 97% of our national grid and in excess of 95% of our main electricity supply company. The ESB has been a shining light in terms of State companies since its establishment. The Government has done fantastic work in making electricity more available and more affordable to people throughout the country, with the national fuel allowance scheme reaching up to 50,000 more households and an additional 38,000 new homes being connected by the ESB by 2025, which was an increase of almost one fifth on 2024. A further €18.9 billion investment by the Government in Ireland's electricity grid and distribution system between now and 2030 will support the provision of 80% of electricity generation through renewable sources. We have to look at the last hundred years in order to think about where we are going to go in the future in terms of the national plan for delivering the power we need in our homes. We have to look at the great engineering works done over the past century, like Ardnacrusha, which fundamentally changed our great waterway, and like what was done in Ballyshannon on the River Erne. Ulster's leading salmon fishery was altered, along with the upper and lower Lough Erne, to drain into the sea through Ballyshannon. Those fisheries were changed forever. We must look at what we are doing now in terms of solar generation. Our greatest resource is our fertile land. In a country with an amazing climate for growing food, we are covering hundreds upon hundreds of acres with solar panels to produce green energy. We must have a conversation about where we are going with this in the long term. As a nation, we have to be brave enough to bite the bullet and have an adult conversation about the feasibility of modular nuclear generators in substations around the country. We have a proud history in western Europe of electricity generation and creation of networks and infrastructure. ESB workers went all over continental Europe, eastern Europe and Africa in the 1960s and 1970s as subcontractors, building grids for other countries. It is one of our great national banks of knowledge. We have to look forward with an open mind, to learn from the past and to have serious, adult conversations about the future of energy generation in this country. --- 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/2026-06-30/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:07+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-06-30