Jennifer Whitmore

The derogation has been in place for 20 years.

Deputy Cummins will not be contributing, so Deputy Hearne and I will share the time. I will take eight or nine minutes and Deputy Hearne will take the remainder. I welcome the opportunity to discuss this issue. There are many very valuable points made by Sinn Féin in its motion. There is no doubt the cost of motoring is a real pressure for households. Rural households are hit particularly hard by…

80. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment to report on the outcome of his recent meeting with our largest energy companies, on 26 September 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59711/25]

Will the Minister report on the outcome of his recent meetings with the largest energy companies in September and make a statement on the matter?

We are all aware that electricity prices are crushing many families across the country at the moment. They are so high. We have among the highest electricity prices in Europe. Recently we were told by the International Energy Agency that our retail prices are three times higher than our wholesale prices. The savings the energy companies are making on wholesale energy are not being passed through t…

In 2020, the average electricity bill was €976. It is currently €1,877. There is no way that is justifiable, even considering the special circumstances that Ireland faces and considering what happened in Ukraine. People are paying twice what they were paying five years ago and, as I said, the price that the companies are paying for wholesale energy is going down. It is now 75% lower than in 2022. …

I am asking this question on behalf of Deputy Liam Quaide. Has the Minister of State's attention has been drawn to the large-scale fish kill mortalities that occurred on the River Blackwater in County Cork in August 2025; the actions he will take to prevent similar future occurrences; and if he will make a statement on the matter?

I thank the Minister of State very much. I visited the site with Deputy Quaide and spoke to many of the anglers there. It was a devastating fish kill. It was probably way more than 40,000 fish, such as trout, that were killed. The problem is that once those fish are gone, they are gone. Their reproduction capacity is gone. It will take more than ten years to get the river back to a standard and th…

What also became apparent during those discussions following that fish kill is that there are major gaps in the EPA enforcement programme. The agency has a national priority sites register, which has the poorest performing sites on it. For example, it monitors 900 sites and four are currently on that list, so they really are the poorest performing sites and North Cork Creameries is one of them. N…

These are all facts. They are on the register.

They have already been on the climate committee-----

86. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment to clarify the Government’s current policy on commercial LNG infrastructure; if he will progress policy banning commercial LNG infrastructure in Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59709/25]

This is not the strategic, public-led, public owned infrastructure; this is the commercial one.

As the Minister will be aware, An Coimisiún Pleanála asked for guidance specifically on commercial LNG facilities and storage from him. His response to that letter and that request for guidance did not mention commercial at all. He did not actually provide a clear answer to the board, and he essentially gave the same response as he has just given to me, but that is not the same as giving a clear p…

I understand the Minister cannot reach into specific planning applications, but what he can do, and the Government has a responsibility to do, is provide clear policy positions on energy growth, development and security in this country. The Minister has already done it in relation to publicly owned LNG. I am asking - and this would be in line with the climate Act - that the Minister puts forward a…

We have no auctions. None.

The Government is leading them to a cliff edge.

Thousands of farmers met in Cork last night and they are really angry. They are correct in being angry because the Government has put its head in the sand and pretended that business as usual will be able to continue and that Ireland will be able to retain its nitrates derogation. That is looking more and more unlikely. The reality is we have had the nitrates derogation since 2006. We got it on th…

I echo the comments about PLS. Unfortunately, during the previous term the Minister for energy got into a really bad habit of rushing Bills through the committee without proper scrutiny and it looks like the Minister of State is taking up that mantle and doing similarly. As a principle, all Bills should go through PLS unless there is an urgent or emergency reason not to. I do not think that is the…

We will potentially see more of those storms. That is the reality we face because of climate change. We will see more frequent and more severe storms. We cannot look at what happened during Storm Éowyn and consider it as a very difficult period in time. It is something that we need to learn an awful lot of lessons from and we need to see it as a wake-up call. The reality is that our grid is not re…

Uisce Éireann has recently been fined €3,500 for a pollution event that occurred in Cavan. This pollution event resulted in a 2 km stretch of riverbed being covered with sewage fungus and hundreds of brown trout dying. Unfortunately, this is not a one-off incident. If we look, Uisce Éireann is repeatedly fined for breaches of its licence and for causing pollution events. Unfortunately, the paltry …

It is clear at this stage that the Common Fisheries Policy, as it is currently being implemented, is not fit for purpose. Something that was established 40 years ago to provide for a co-ordinated management of fish stocks has failed. It has failed to protect fish stocks, to protect our marine and to protect Irish fishing industry. Our Irish fishing industry is one that is core to who we are as an…

A Cheann Comhairle, this is absolutely disgraceful.

Over 300,000 households are in electricity arrears, while 1 million will see hikes in their electricity bills this month. At the same time, wholesale energy prices have dropped by 75% from the peak of the energy crisis. Earlier the Taoiseach asked where the pressure was on these energy companies. I agree 100% with him. Where is the pressure on these energy companies? That is his job. Families are …

That money is just sitting there.