Energy Policy: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-17
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Darragh O'Brien (FF), Dublin Fingal East

I was going to wait for Deputy Murphy to speak later on. Anyway, that is a fact. Deputy Stanley was also here for that debate, when I also said that applications for connections are not automatically granted. If anything, many have been refused. We have to balance this and that is done independently through the planning process and through the connection agreements that are in place.
On demand, the critical priority is to ensure we can meet demand right the way across our country. That is why the PR6 grid investment is so important. That €18.9 billion of investment will deliver more than 520 capital projects to allow for more renewables on our system - we are accelerating renewables - to allow more storage in our system and to bring down energy bills. The fundamental way to do that is to accelerate renewables by reducing our dependence on fossil fuel. That has to be done and that is what we are doing.
In relation to the measures we will take, the Deputies are perfectly entitled to put forward this motion with their suggestions. We are now preparing for the budget. I assure people that the budget will be a cost-of-living budget. It will be about protecting families, workers, working families and the most vulnerable in our society through what is a global crisis. We are not going to be able to protect everyone from every single price increase but we will do our level best to protect them in a very sustainable way that continues to protect jobs in our economy and not by shutting down a whole sector.

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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