Last week, the Taoiseach told Radio Teilifís Éireann that he was open to all forms of energy supply. He also acknowledged the fragility of Irish dependence on imported fuels. That admission is important - and it is important to the House - because Ireland imports approximately 86% of its energy, which is one of the highest dependence rates in Europe. At the same time, the Government made a deliberate decision in 2021 to ban oil and gas exploration. This was not a forced decision or an inevitable decision; it was a policy choice on the part of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party. Does the Taoiseach accept that the banning of domestic exploration, while remaining overwhelmingly dependent on energy imports, has left Ireland dangerously exposed? As he knows, this country is sitting on a potential offshore resource, including the Barryroe field off Cork, close to the Taoiseach's constituency and mine, which independent assessment suggests could contain up to 1.6 billion barrels of oil. This is probably €157 billion worth of oil.

Can I put it to the Taoiseach that he is saying that all energy options are open while some are actively prohibited by law? In that context, will the Government reverse the 2021 ban on oil and gas exploration and allow Ireland to at least give access in order that it might develop its own resources? Will he commit to reviewing and repealing the legislation that prohibits nuclear energy, which was first introduced in this House in 1999 and the provisions of which were continued in the development Act of 2024? The State's position in this regard is not credible. Ireland bans nuclear-generated energy at home and, yet, through the Celtic interconnector, we import the nuclear energy directly from France. I put it to the Taoiseach that the latter is not climate leadership; it is a policy contradiction.

Does the Taoiseach accept that Ireland's exposure to this crisis is not just global in origin but domestic in design? Norway operates in the same markets and the United Kingdom faces the same pressures, but they produce energy. We import it. They have options. We have none. This is about not abandoning renewable energies. I see the importance of the latter, but this is about realism. We know that renewable energy meets is a very small share of the total energy demand in this country. We have to face the reality that oil and gas are here for decades to come. Even if we speed up reducing our dependence and increasing the development of wind energy, wave energy and the rest, we will still have to use oil and gas for at least this generation if not the next. I have a simple question for the Taoiseach. Will Ireland produce some of its own energy or will we continue to import energy that comes at a market price?

Ireland will continue to produce its own energy, but it will be in renewables overwhelmingly. We have a very poor record in terms of oil and gas exploration over the decades. Kinsale gas was first brought onshore in the 1970s, and we have had Corrib. Barryroe never showed any prospects. Barryroe could have been exploited if it had the prospects which Deputy O'Flynn said it had decades before any legislative prohibition on oil and gas exploration.

We are overly dependent on imported fossil fuels. I accept that. There needs to be a strong grid connection with Europe and the UK. The interconnection with France will be a significant milestone. I hope it will come on stream next year. I met the Spanish Prime Minister recently, and we agreed that we would explore a grid connection between Spain and Ireland. There is potentially strong European funding for greater interconnection and grid connection across Europe. That is a key strategy of the European Union. The reason our Anglo-Irish summits are so important is because we have a very strong economic relationship but we also have a strong energy relationship. We have the gas interconnectors with the United Kingdom. We are exploring with the UK further combined work in terms of offshore wind in particular and how we can complement supply chains in the context of the generation of energy through offshore wind.

In terms of nuclear, again, the investment in nuclear is enormous. We are putting about €18 billion into the grid over the next five years' investment to both absorb additional demand and also to further integrate renewables into the grid expertly, which we do very well as a country. I see solar as a very significant growth area. Solar has grown exponentially over the last two to three years in terms of rooftops and so on, but a lot of companies are using solar, which is reducing their dependence on imported fossil fuels. In companies like Eli Lilly in Kinsale, for example, 25% of its energy is powered by a solar farm in the environments of the factory. There is rooftop solar in PepsiCo in Carrigaline. Many other companies are moving in that direction. I suggest the direction of travel has to be in the renewables area. I do believe in climate change. I know a lot of people do not; I do. It is interesting. I take the Deputy's point about nuclear-----

I thank the Taoiseach. Time is up now. Deputy O'Flynn to respond.

----- but the energy source that did most damage to the planet was actually fossil fuels.

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply but he is in contradiction with exactly what he said on RTÉ over one week ago when he said he was open to all forms of energy supply. I asked him quite clearly whether he is willing to look at the policy where the Government said in 1999 that we are going to ban nuclear. The Taoiseach has come to the House and told me. I assume he has read the independent analysis and independent report in Barryroe as well because I did not realise, along with the other expertise he has, that he has expertise in oil refinery and finding oil.

I did not advise the Deputy of that either.

I have invested enough of it. It is all very well to talk about renewable energy, and I do see the importance of renewable energy. I witnessed renewable energy when the grid in Spain took out Portugal, all of Spain and most of France just up to Paris, if the Taoiseach remembers that. That was an oversupply, and we never got to the end of that.

I thank the Deputy. The Taoiseach to respond.

There are, therefore, challenges when it comes to renewable energy.

There are challenges, yes. That is why we have to invest in storage as well. That is a technology that is developing fast as well. I was at a recent investment in the midlands in Offaly. I believe Offaly and Laois can become a real powerhouse for energy into the future with a lot of industrial development alongside of it. That investment was from a Korean company partnering with an Irish company in terms of storage. On the integration of renewables into the grid, we have a good record in that respect in this country. We need to keep striving to do more of that. There are other forms like anaerobic digestion. I put it to the Deputy, however, given his capacity for campaigning for any group that develops an opposition to something, if a nuclear facility was proposed for Cork North-Central, I am not so sure what side of the coin he would be on.

I would send it over to the southside.