Development (Strategic Gas Reserve) Bill 2026: Second Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-07
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Malcolm Noonan (GP), Agricultural Panel

I join with my colleagues in our outright condemnation of this approach by the Government in relation to this legislation. The Government is going to be the lead negotiator on behalf of the European Union at both the climate Conference of the Parties, COP, and the biodiversity COP later this year. We have zero credibility in asking other member states to step up or in trying to show leadership from a European perspective when we are disapplying our climate Act every time we want to, be it the Critical Infrastructure Act the airport cap Bill or this legislation. What credibility have we got? We have none. We do not have any. We are stepping into the Presidency of European Union with no credibility whatsoever.
As has been said by my colleague, our climate committee first of all was denied the opportunity to take pre-legislative scrutiny. It was then crammed into a two-week session. Our report was subsequently ignored anyway and none of the recommendations from it were taken on board. If an emergency reserve is actually needed, and that is a really big "If", one of our recommendations was for an updated energy security review which, again, was not followed up on. If we look at how soon this can be ready and how quickly we can electrify our energy system and support interconnection and storage, then it is of critical importance that the reserve is contained strictly within our frameworks for decarbonising our society. To do otherwise creates a situation where we develop a reserve that locks us into further possible fuel use dependence, as well as being past a sell-by date. The reality is quite stark. By allowing an LNG terminal to be exempt from binding commitments of the climate Act, the terminal will not have to comply with national mitigation plans, adaptation frameworks, transition objectives or greenhouse gas mitigation strategies. Without the right guardrails in place in this legislation, we are putting ourselves at risk of creating significant fossil fuel lock-in within our energy system, doubling down on high energy costs for families and homes. Again, this was reiterated at our climate committee. If we are to have a gas reserve, it should entail as small as possible an amount for the shortest possible amount of time, with a clear exit strategy, all underpinned by the mechanisms of the climate Act. That is what it is there for. This Bill does none of that. Instead, it leaves LNG as an open-ended question at a time when we know just how unreliable global supplies of fossil fuels can be. We have heard this from Friends of the Earth. We heard it from Trócaire, which is calling on the Government to have us carry our fair share of the burden.
On the issue around security of supply, LNG does not give us security of supply. Our energy supply for this reserve would have to be imported from countries like Qatar and the United States.
We have seen the volatility happening there. We have an opportunity here to do something radically different but, unfortunately, the Minister of State has not taken that opportunity.
An Coimisiún Pleanála announced yesterday that it is going to delay the decision on the Shannon pipeline until 2 July next year. There is a five-year timeline on this, and a €900 million cost of construction for the project. There is no doubt that is going to escalate and it will happen with the Shannon pipeline as well. For what? To lock us into fossil fuel infrastructure for data centres into the future, missing our climate targets and denying an opportunity for Ireland to show leadership at a time when it is critical to do so.
This is a disgraceful piece of legislation and we will not be supporting it.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-07/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:09+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-07