On behalf of the Rural Independent Group, I call Deputy Michael Healy-Rae.

On “Morning Ireland” yesterday, Wednesday, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, stated that he could no longer guarantee there would be no blackouts this winter. In his own words, I think what he said was that the energy supply is going to be a little bit "tight". That is an understatement. EirGrid has stated that if no action is taken, Ireland will be short 260 MW of electricity in 2022 and 2023. Why has this happened? The Government - in other words, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil - has pandered to the Green Party, closing peat power stations such as Lough Ree. Bord Gáis customers face a 12% rise in gas and a 10% in increase in electricity prices. There have been something like 17 announcements of ESB increases over the last couple of years. This will see customers pay 28% more for gas and 24% more for electricity than last year. Similarly, Energia last week announced increases of 15.7% for gas and 18.5% for electricity, on top of two increases earlier this year. The Government policy has resulted in fewer Irish jobs, less Irish fuel, higher Irish prices, potential blackouts and a massive knock-on to inflation in general.

The horticultural harvesting of peat in Ireland ceased in September 2019 yet, over the last couple of weeks, 4,000 tonnes were imported from Latvia at a higher cost, both financially and environmentally. Can the Tánaiste please explain to me how this makes sense? The depleted supply of Irish peat and the ban on harvesting of peat is endangering 17,000 jobs across Ireland. The horticultural industry is at serious risk. They came to the Dáil a couple of months ago to make their case, and I know they got a good hearing on the day, but they did not get a good hearing from the Government. The cost of importing peat, for example, is three times the cost of providing our own peat.

Two more shipments, believe it or not, of 4,000 tonnes will be required each month if we are to keep the horticultural industry serviced. This was a decision of the Government. It is not good enough. I do not want anybody to think that I am landing all this at the lap of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan; I am not. The Minister did this, but he was ably and suitably abetted by the Tánaiste's party and the other parties.

I would remind the Tánaiste that last year, on the third Saturday in February, in Texas, after the network failed, 69 people died in their homes of hypothermia. Can the Tánaiste guarantee that we will not have a situation where people will be cold and in danger in their own homes where there is an over-reliance on electricity, where there is no chimney in the house, and where people need electricity to keep themselves warm, to feed themselves and to keep themselves safe?

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I have had a chance over the past couple of days to study the presentations that EirGrid and the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities have provided to the Government. Having looked at those presentations, I am confident that we will avoid blackouts and brownouts this winter, but nobody can guarantee it for certain because there are certain factors that are outside of our control.

It is important to point out that the peat power stations in the midlands were not closed as a consequence of a Government decision, and nor were they closed at the behest of the Green Party. They were closed because of planning and legal issues. If people have a perception that the Government decided to close those plants, that is factually incorrect. It is important that everyone here should acknowledge that.

The Government has been advised both by the utility regulator and EirGrid that they have identified specific challenges to ensuring continued electricity security of supply which they are currently in the process of addressing. This is very much affected by the fact that two major gas-fired power stations in Ireland are out of action - one in Huntstown in my constituency and another in Cork - and we need to get those back online in October and November. We are confident that this will be the case but we cannot guarantee it absolutely. Also, there has been increased demand and some of the anticipated new power stations have not been developed as planned.

Something being considered as part of the plan as well is the deferral of the expected closure of power stations that make up approximately 25% of our conventional electricity generation capacity over the coming years. A number of plants were due to close over the next couple of years. It is likely that those decisions to close will have to be deferred until we have sufficient wind and gas developed to allow us to close those stations.

There is a short-term immediate risk to the supply of electricity. That is being caused by a number of factors, including those two power stations that are closed, wind not blowing as much as was anticipated and problems with the interconnector between the UK and Ireland.

There have been a number of system alerts which indicate an elevated level of risk, including two in early September. However, it is important to say that these alerts did not impact on the electricity supply to any customers. This risk will reduce with the upcoming return to operation of the two major gas-fired power stations and that is due to happen in October and November.

Another conversation that is not taking place and should be is that the network is not capable of carrying the load that it is being asked to carry, now and in the future. The grid needs to be replaced and no one is talking about that. There is a massive investment needed in upgrading. The Government policies are to use this type of power but at the same time we are not doing anything to increase the availability of it.

Also, we have to look at the whole subject of the Shannon liquefied natural gas project, which was a priority of the previous Government of 2016 but, at the Green Party's behest, was dropped from the aspirations of the current Government. I believe that the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, recently stated that one of his favourite songs was Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark". The Minister, the rest of the Cabinet and, unfortunately, the rest of the country could possibly be dancing in the dark if we do not see action and if common sense does not prevail. The Government should stop going on this crusade of talking about the future while ignoring the present needs of the people of this nation - the young people, the old people, the people who want to go to work and the people who want heat and comfort in their homes.

God knows, we are giving Garth Brooks great publicity anyway.

I very much agree that we need to upgrade, improve and modernise our grid but I would not agree with the Deputy saying that nobody has been talking about it. Very ambitious plans have been published to improve and modernise the grid, including the North-South interconnector, the Celtic interconnector between Ireland and France, and Grid West. At times they are controversial but no one can doubt that, with a growing population, an expanding economy and the move to renewables, we will need to improve and modernise our power grid.

There are different types of natural gas, including green gas; brown shale gas, which we want to avoid; and blue gas, which is the natural gas from the sea. It is acknowledged, and it is Government policy, that natural gas is a transition fuel. We will need to use natural gas, and lots of it, for the next 20 or 30 years, and we will need to see new gas-fired power stations built.

There may come a time when we can produce so much wind that we will be able to use the excess wind to produce hydrogen. That point may arrive in 20 or 30 years' time when we do not need gas in our system and we can rely entirely on renewables but we are very far away from that. In the meantime, we will need new gas-fired power plants to provide that power when we need it.

I thank everyone for their co-operation. We finished Leaders' Questions more or less on time. We move now to Questions on Promised Legislation.