Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-11
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Paul Nicholas Gogarty (IND), Dublin Mid-West

I also acknowledge the presence of the Canadian ambassador, H. E. Mr. King. On a personal level, I thank the Prime Minister of his country for the leadership he has shown at Davos and elsewhere in standing up to buffoonery and a lack of common sense internationally. In particular, I offer my condolences to his country, especially the families of those killed and injured at Tumbler Ridge.
The specific matter I want to raise is hydrogen, but I want to talk about the broader picture first. From listening to a lot of the debates here, I can see the amount of hot air generated. If we put a little turbine at the top of the House, we would be able to light up all of Dublin sometimes. I am a firm believer in investment in renewable energy. We are way behind where we could be. We have the potential to create 37 GW of offshore wind by 2050 and possibly another 15 GW of onshore wind and solar. That is before we even look at areas such as tidal, which the east coast and the Shannon Estuary have an abundance of, and wave energy. We are sadly lacking in that regard. As a result of grid challenges and the fact we cannot store the energy produced by renewables at their peak, we are wasting a lot of energy. Many hard-pressed consumers in my constituency are struggling to pay their bills. It is a huge waste to see all that renewable energy being produced but not being used and dissipating.
The answer in this regard is the creation and storage of green hydrogen. In that context, we have a hydrogen strategy that was initiated in 2023 and a hydrogen plan containing 21 key recommendations that was brought forward in 2025. In the context of reaching our 2030 targets, we are already falling behind. I will digress by saying that we also need battery storage, but hydrogen is going to be key. Off the Dublin coast, on the Kish Bank, there are salt caverns and off the coast of the constituency the Taoiseach represents are depleted gas fields. There is huge potential to store green hydrogen created from renewables with the lowest possible loss from the initial energy generated. We could store green hydrogen for use by industry and aviation. We could be net exporters of hydrogen as well as other forms of energy, such as electricity, very quickly, if we put in the necessary infrastructure right now and ramp up.
I would like a commitment on how soon we can get a hydrogen network operator for Ireland appointed and on getting the pre-planning for the appointment of a safety and economic regulator for hydrogen here done.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-11/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:02+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-11