When is it proposed to take Fifth Stage?

Is that agreed? Agreed.

Is fáilte an Aire. I echo the commendations for the Civic Engagement Group on bringing this motion to the Seanad. They speak day in and day out about the horror that is unfolding in Gaza. The one thing we see Palestinians say is, "Don't stop talking about it. You are our voices. Our lives depend on this." I am not the only one in saying that the feeling of powerlessness, frustration and hopelessness at the failure of the international community to act is soul destroying. That is why we have to keep talking and havi…

I welcome the decision of the Taoiseach to call on the European Commission to urgently review the EU-Israel association agreement, but I argue that real action would be to trigger Article 82 to immediately suspend the association agreement while a review is being conducted. It is worth comparing this with the actions in respect of UNRWA and the allegations relating to 12 UNRWA workers. That number might have whittled down to eight workers. We have seen no evidence in that regard. Israel will not provide the evidenc…

Well said.

I move amendment No. 1: In page 8, line 7, after “Heritage” to insert “, Minister for Finance”. This amendment seeks to amend section 9(2) by including a provision that the Minister for Finance may not be appointed by the Government as the majority-shareholding Minister of Gas Networks Ireland. Currently the subsection provides it may not be the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage; the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications; or the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Developm…

The concern, which we will get to when we give the example of the shareholder letter of expectation of Coillte from 2022, is if the Minister for Finance is the majority-shareholding Minister, he or she could try to generate the maximum number of shares for the public, as opposed to balancing that with the climate Act. That gives us cause for concern because of the way in which GNI is working at the moment in respect of islanded data centres, as I have said. GNI seems to disagree that there is a risk and is seeking …

I move amendment No. 2: In page 8, between lines 17 and 18, to insert the following: “(4) An order made under subsections (2) or (3) shall require approval by resolution of both Houses of the Oireachtas.”.

I move amendment No. 3: In page 8, between lines 37 and 38, to insert the following: “(4) The majority-shareholding Minister shall, on a bi-annual basis, lay before both Houses of the Oireachtas any shareholder letters of expectation issued in respect of Gas Networks Ireland.”. The amendment follows on from our concerns about the Minister for Finance being the majority-shareholding Minister of GNI. It relates to a broader concern with regard to how shareholder letters of expectation have been used in respect of sem…

I move amendment No. 4: In page 12, to delete lines 30 and 31 and substitute the following: “(ii) by the insertion of the following definitions: “ ‘Act of 2014’ means the Companies Act 2014; ‘carbon budget’ has the meaning assigned to it in section 1 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (as amended), and means the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions that are permitted during the budget period; ‘climate action plan’ has the meaning assigned to it in section 4(1)(a) of the Climate Action and…

The Minister of State has said repeatedly that Gas Networks Ireland is consistent with the climate action plan, that it is in line and its policies are in line.

The Department of the environment has said that islanded data centres are not compatible with the climate action plan. I will quote a Department official for the Minister of State: A spokesperson for the Department of the Environment said that any centre not hooked up to the electricity grid could damage Irish emissions targets. The policy statement highlights the undesirability of 'islanded' data centres that would generate their own electricity from natural gas. The decarbonisation section of the Government State…

Again, we are hearing that there is no inconsistency with what we are trying to achieve and what the Government says it wants to achieve but there is an urgency here. There is no inconsistency with what the EU gas package, for which we must wait, wants to achieve and yet, while we dither and dawdle about restricting the connection of data centres to the gas grid, more and more of them are connecting to it. More and more data centres connecting to the gas grid not only puts our carbon emissions targets in jeopardy, …

What is the difference between introducing a moratorium on data centres connecting to the electricity grid and data centres connecting to the gas grid? No issues around discrimination of treatment arose with the electricity grid. We instructed EirGrid not to connect data centres to the electricity grid and no such issues were raised by the CRU or by Government Ministers at the time. There could be a moratorium on gas connections and then a wait for the EU gas package to enshrine it not as a moratorium but on a perm…

That is certainly news to everybody on the climate committee because we have been repeatedly told that there is a moratorium on connections to the electricity grid by data centres. EirGrid only a week ago told the committee that its view was that it was detrimental to the Irish economy because it was not in a position to connect any data centres to the grid due to the moratorium it was instructed to comply with and that it wanted to see some sort of sustainable policy direction. I do not agree with it. There is a p…

The Minister of State said he would check the ten-year network development plan. One has not been published since 2021, which, I would point out, is in breach of SI 16/2015 - European Communities (Internal Market in Natural Gas and Electricity) (Amendment) Regulations 2015. We are dragging our feet on this issue. The Minister of State is not going to accept the amendments; I get that. It is deeply disappointing. You cannot talk about an emergency and then not act like there is an emergency, which there is when it c…

I move amendment No. 5: In page 12, between lines 32 and 33, to insert the following: “(i) in subsection (1)— (I) by the substitution of the following paragraph for paragraph (a): “(a) The Board shall own, operate, develop and maintain a system for the transmission and distribution of natural gas, being a system that is carbon budget-aligned, economical and efficient and shall perform its functions in a manner consistent with— (i) the most recent approved climate action plan, (ii) the most recent approved national …

I move amendment No. 6: In page 13, after line 40, to insert the following: “(d) in section 10A— (i) in subsection (4), by the insertion of the following paragraphs after paragraph (h): “(i) the terms and conditions upon which applications for new connections or expansion of the gas network must be assessed to consider the expected emissions profile of the new connection, and of its contribution to the decarbonisation of Ireland’s economy; and (j) the terms and conditions upon which an application may be refused if…

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. It is important to put some context around the Bill that we are being asked to support tonight. It is also important to look at Ireland's record on upholding environmental and nature laws. In January 2022, the EU official responsible for overseeing governance, enforcement action, and compliance on EU environmental legislation, told an Environment Ireland conference that much work remains to be done if Ireland is to bridge the gap of environmental compliance. He went on to describe…

I second the amendment.