There are many discussions at the moment around the fuel crisis, the energy crisis, Government supports and our energy policy as a nation. The Barryroe oil field is a topic that is raised quite a lot in west Cork and in recent times local media and national media have raised the issue. Not just in recent weeks, I have been engaging with the Ballyroe oil field. I met them long before this fuel protest in recent weeks. I have spoken to many in west Cork to sound out the views of people, including party members in Fine Gael and commercial people and business people. I want to put on the record that I support moving to renewables. I support all of us -whether it is parliamentarians, businesses, industry- all of us as citizens protecting our environment and reducing our emissions going forward.

However, we must be realistic. We cannot move to a state of zero emissions in the short term. We must work towards it. We have a natural resource 50 km off our coast in west Cork that potentially may lead to billions of barrels' worth of oil and gas. It is pragmatic and a commonsense policy to see exactly what is there. There is talk of billions of barrels' worth of oil but nobody knows exactly how much. The company that owns the licensing and the project at the moment is requesting an exploration licence. This was refused in 2023 but it needs to be re-looked at.

The Government needs to look at energy policy and energy security. All our oil and gas is brought to this country. It is imported. It is brought in through ships that use diesel fuel. There is a reduction in terms of emissions if we can use our own fuel. It is my view but I think it is a commonsense view. We need to look at our own resources in terms of an energy crisis. I will be discussing it further but it is worth a debate with the Minister for energy in due course.