Social Democrats' Jennifer Whitmore says the legislation is being rushed, lacks promised guarantees on a State-led LNG terminal and overlooks cleaner alternatives.

Government plans to establish a Strategic Emergency Gas Reserve have been sharply criticised by the Social Democrats, who argue the Bill underscores ongoing failures on energy security, climate planning and infrastructure delivery.

Deputy Whitmore said: "This legislation is being rushed through the Dáil because the current and previous governments have failed to address our energy security and put into place measures that will assist us to become energy independent.

"We have seen delay after delay when it comes to nearly every single major infrastructure project that would help us become more energy independent, reduce our emissions and drive down energy costs for consumers. To give just one example, we have less offshore wind now than we had 20 years ago.

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"Instead of addressing any of these major failings, the government has cobbled together this legislation – which raises more questions than answers. For a start, even though the Minister has repeatedly stated that an LNG terminal will be State-owned and State-led, there is no reference to that in the legislation.

"This clearly creates massive uncertainty about the manner in which this terminal will operate and the very real potential of mission creep, which would see this terminal being used on a commercial basis or for routine supply.

"That would mean approximately €1 billion of public money being ploughed into a project that could be used by private operators to boost their own profits.

"The government has also utterly failed to examine alternatives to this LNG terminal, before deciding to embark on locking in further fossil fuel infrastructure. Things like battery storage, alternative fuels and demand management have not been considered.

"The reality is this Bill is being rushed through the Dáil with the government voting against any and all reasonable Opposition amendments, which would strengthen the accountability, oversight and safeguards it contains.

"This legislation is a monument to government failure – a failure to plan for our energy future, a failure to publish credible plans to meet our climate targets and a failure to deliver critical public infrastructure."