online<\/a>) includes opinion from James O\u2019Connor and Adi Roche, and analysis by Paul Hosford, Colin Sheridan, and Neil Michael<\/p>\nWriting in the Irish Examiner tomorrow, Monday, Mr O\u2019Connor says that lowering electricity prices \u201crequires decades of investment in generation capacity, grid infrastructure, and energy security\u201d but that Ireland has \u201cspent far too long relying on short-term sticking plaster solutions\u201d.<\/p>\n
He writes: \u201cThe countries that will enjoy affordable and secure energy in the 2040s and 2050s are making their decisions now.<\/p>\n
\n Ireland cannot afford another decade of avoiding difficult conversations simply because the solutions are politically challenging.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
Speaking in the D\u00e1il last week, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin said that he believes that nuclear power \u2014 which has been banned since 1999 in Ireland \u2014 should be examined.<\/p>\n
“I believe we should have a serious examination of nuclear because we need to work out costs and timelines. There have been advances in technology in the smaller reactors and so on, and I am all for that,” Mr Martin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should examine the issue of the potential of nuclear power given the changing technologies and how technology has advanced,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Connor said his bill is not for the short term but is intended to meet future demand and that a \u201cmature energy policy should not be ideological, it should be pragmatic\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, the opposition has criticised the bill as \u201ca distraction\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s energy spokesman Pa Daly said that the infrastructure would take \u201cuntil at least 2040 to build\u201d and would cost the State significant amounts of money.<\/p>\n
Paul Hosford, Deputy Political Editor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bill which would see Ireland overturn a two-and a-half decade ban on nuclear energy will be discussed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8858,895,63615,45775,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-442587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-energy-prices","tag-fianna-fail","tag-fuel-prices","tag-government-spending","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}