The liquefied natural gas terminal set to be constructed in Co Clare is “critical to securing Ireland’s energy systems” as the State transitions to “indigenous, clean renewable energy”, the Dáil has been told.Minister of State for the Marine, Timmy Dooley, a Clare TD, defended the controversial project to be built along the Shannon estuary at Cahiracon as he faced staunch opposition criticism.Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman said “our climate targets will undergo death by 1,000 exemptions”, as he condemned the exemption of legislation on the floating facility from assessment for its impact on the climate.Sinn Féin energy spokesman Pa Daly said the terminal was not about guaranteeing Irish energy security, but rather “managing the failure of this Government to invest properly in offshore wind.”Introducing the Development (Strategic Gas Reserve) Bill, Dooley said the storage facility would “provide the resilience required to support our energy transition”. He said the “State-led strategic reserve will store LNG for use only in the event of a disruption to gas supplies”. It is not intended for commercial use “and will not act as a new entry point for gas into the system”, he said. The Bill is the first of a number to develop the project and “critical to achieving accelerated delivery of this project”.However, O’Gorman said it would tie Ireland to the use of fossil fuels. He said in one day during the Iran war the price of gas rose by 45 per cent, and the terminal would be too small to make any difference.Daly said Ireland imports nearly all of its oil and gas and more than 80 per cent of its natural gas. [ Dismantling of climate law will reduce scrutiny of large infrastructure projectsOpens in new window ]“This set-up was never going to deliver energy security. The risks were well flagged, the vulnerabilities well known,” he said. “Yet instead of fixing the structural issues, this Bill doubles down on the same approach, locking us further into fossil fuel dependency and charging the public for it.”Social Democrats spokeswoman Jennifer Whitmore said there had been “delay after delay regarding much of the major infrastructure we would need” to deal with emissions. “This discussion is happening because the current and previous governments have failed to come to grips with our energy security and to put in place measures that will assist us to become energy independent,” Whitmore said. “This LNG facility is a sort of emergency solution because all the hard work has not been done.”Labour spokesman Ciarán Ahern described it as “perhaps the most regressive legislation produced by the Government. Any legislation or infrastructure that requires us to overturn a ban on fracked gas is just inherently bad for the climate”. The Bill “risks locking us into greater fossil fuel dependence, while simultaneously weakening planning safeguards, diluting climate accountability and concentrating an extraordinary amount of power in the hands of a Minister”.[ Fossil fuel phase-out plan is missing link in energy and climate policyOpens in new window ]Fine Gael TD John Clendennen, however, welcomed the legislation and said it was “an insurance policy for the State”.His party colleague Barry Ward described it as a “necessary evil” but said the terminal did not prohibit the use of fracked gas from abroad.Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín described Ireland’s energy policy as a “mess” and said there were no offshore wind turbines, despite the Government hosting five international conferences on wind energy in recent years.Campaign group Not Here Not Anywhere said in a statement the facility “could act as a Trojan horse for LNG and fracked gas to enter the Irish market”. “LNG cannot sit idly within an FSRU (Floating Storage and Regasification Unit) tank indefinitely, due to boil-off effect” and “this gas will have to be sold into the Irish grid periodically to avoid waste of this expensive fuel and recoup some of the operating costs”, it said.