Sir, – For a number of years, many energy experts, respected commentators and energy professionals have been highlighting the increasing vulnerability and volatility of our national energy security situation.
Putin’s war in Ukraine, Brexit, a lack of gas storage facilities here and the exponentially increasing global cost and demand for energy have increased that vulnerability to the point where our immediate and future economic and societal viability is critically compromised.
It is indeed depressingly worrying that our Government have failed to address this existential problem with any degree of urgency and is leading the country along an unnecessarily dangerous path to severe economic and societal difficulty. For instance, Government paralysis is:
1) Blocking and delaying the establishment of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility at Shannon, while simultaneously many other EU countries are urgently scrambling to install such facilities to protect their citizens and their economies.
2) Hampering the development of renewable offshore wind projects through outdated, inefficient and cumbersome planning laws.
3) Failing to invest in the national grid which is grossly unfit for purpose.
4) Responsible for stopping issuing natural gas exploration licences off our coast, a decision which, in the light of the current crisis, was utterly foolish and irresponsible.
5) Refusing to issue a drilling licence for the Barryroe oil and natural gas field which has been independently vouched to have over 350 million barrels of oil and copious quantities of natural gas. If this bonanza, just off the Cork coast, was in Norwegian or Scottish waters, the oil and gas would have been flowing years ago.
6) Refusing to grant an extension licence for the Innishkea natural gas field close to the declining Corrib field in Co Mayo, our only indigenous source.
Development of this field would afford us further decades of native natural gas to reduce our imports and act as vital back-up as we transition to renewables.
7) Refusing to even discuss the option of small modular nuclear reactors, ideal for Ireland’s future needs.
8) Failing to issue the national energy plan, despite it being promised three years ago.
The seriousness of our situation cannot be overemphasised, and the onus is on the Government to put the national interest first and address these issues with the commitment and urgency they require. – Yours, etc,
JOHN LEAHY,
Cork.