Planning for the future and anticipating energy supply difficulties has never been more important than it is at the moment.
As a country, we are more dependent on oil and gas to meet our energy needs than our EU neighbours. A guaranteed supply of energy is a fundamental requirement if multinational companies are to continue operating here. And yet the Government has responded in a painfully slow fashion to the implications of oil shortages on the world market.
There has been some progress. A second gas interconnector is being built between Ireland and Scotland which will ensure greater security of energy supply. A North/South link is also being constructed. In addition, a pipeline linking Galway, Limerick and Cork and Dublin will distribute gas from the Corrib field, off Mayo, when it eventually becomes available.
Proposals for an electricity interconnector across the Irish Sea were put on hold last year as the Government concentrated on developing an all-Ireland electricity market by 2007. While such a step will reduce electricity generating costs and improve security of supply, the absence of a direct link with Britain and the continent is likely to inhibit the development of wind power and other alternative energy sources. An interconnector between Wales and Ireland is planned between 2009 and 2012.
The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has found our economy to be overly dependent on oil and natural gas and it strongly emphasises the need for fuel diversity. As part of that process, and in order to meet our commitments under the Kyoto protocol on global warming, it again recommended the introduction of a carbon tax. Such an imposition would be particularly fraught at this time of rising oil prices and would - as the ESRI acknowledged - have to be sensitively managed so as not to impact negatively on the least-well-off. Doing nothing is not an option in the long term, however, because the financial penalties involved in buying carbon credits will be much greater than had been anticipated.
On a broader front, scientists have suggested that the cultivation of biomass fuels, and in particular elephant grass, could meet up to 30 per cent of our electricity generating requirements in the future. Apart from growing crops to burn in power stations, however, there is an urgent need to promote ethanol as an alternative fuel for the transport industry. Sugar beet would be a particularly suitable crop in that regard. And research into a carbohydrate-based economy, involving bio-refining industries and new products, should be encouraged in response to falling oil reserves.