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Dail Éireann — 2026-09-17
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Darragh O'Brien (FF), Dublin Fingal East

It might suit a certain political narrative of large energy users and big corporations against everyone else, eating up all our energy. That might play well on social media. There is a reality to managing economic growth. Why do we want to manage economic growth? For the good of our people, for jobs, for people's livelihoods, so they can pay their mortgages, so they can live well - that is why. This is part of our industrial policy. The LEAP sets out how that is done in a plan-led way. It is not a question of anyone rocking up and, as the Deputy puts it, a red carpet is put out. That is not true. That does not happen. I take it the Social Democrats want to see continued investment in our country. Maybe they do not but we do. We have to accelerate the delivery of grid infrastructure, which we are doing through PR 6. That will enable us to get ahead of demand projections. That is the reality. There is no cost of compliance agreed with the EU and no formula. None of that is agreed. Anyone bandying around figures of €20 billion or €28 billion is just incorrect.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-17