Oireachtas Committee’s Pre Legislative Scrutiny report produces range of hard-hitting recommendations pointing to legal, cost, security and environmental shortcomings in Government’s proposed LNG Bill.

The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy has published its Pre-Legislative Scrutiny Report of the Government’s General Scheme of the Strategic Gas Emergency Reserve Bill 2025 (regarding the development of a State-led LNG terminal). 

Friends of the Earth appeared before the Committee to highlight that the Government’s proposed LNG scheme risks undermining climate law, democratic safeguards and genuine energy security. 

Welcoming the Committee’s significant recommendation that the Department should immediately update its Energy Security Review assessment before any further consideration of the Bill, Friends of the Earth believes Ireland’s future energy resilience lies in accelerated renewable and data centre demand reduction, not further fossil fuel lock in with a new multi-million-euro gas terminal.  

Responding to the Report, Jerry Mac Evilly, Head of Policy in Friends of the Earth, stated: 

“The Committee’s report is a clear indictment of the proposed bill that is deliberately tone-deaf to climate obligations. We welcome the Committee’s uncompromising recommendation that the Government should examine geopolitical risks, deployment of further renewables, battery storage, secondary fuels, as well as limits on high-demand users like data centres before any final Bill is produced. [Recommendation 35] 

We also welcome the Committee’s recognition of the high costs LNG poses to households. Crucially, the report stipulates that no approval should proceed without a transparent cost-benefit analysis comparing LNG and its alternatives, quantifying both full lifetime costs and energy security benefits across all supply scenarios.” [Recommendation 38] 

Friends of the Earth is now calling on Minister O’Brien to press pause on this Bill, accept the Committee’s recommendations and undertake an updated energy security assessment in light of the Committee’s concerns.” 

Jerry Mac Evilly also stated: 

"One of the most concerning aspects of the proposed Bill was its assault on the Climate Act and the Committee has clearly rejected this specifying that the Bill must explicitly align with the Climate Act and demonstrate compliance with carbon budgets. [Recommendation 13] It is also clear that any commercial LNG project must be rejected [Recommendation 14] and requires the Bill to uphold the Government’s own commitments in relation to adhering to climate obligations and not increasing gas demand, as detailed in its 2023 Energy Security Review.” [Recommendation 9].  

While the Committee has exposed the Bill’s many failures, the report should have gone further and recommended the total abandonment of the Bill and the Government’s proposed LNG development. We are urging all Parliamentarians to protect Irish people from the impact of climate breakdown, the effects of which are being experienced in floods and storms and reject this fossil fuel Bill.”  

The report’s recommendations also include that: 

• The Government should reiterate its commitment to carbon budgets and reject the importation of fracked gas.
• All commercial involvement must be removed; the gas reserve must remain State-owned and operated, restricted solely to emergency supply, and prohibited from becoming a commercial terminal. Specific safeguards must be introduced to prevent any new commercial or further State-led LNG infrastructure. The  Bill should clarify that Ireland’s strategic approach is to phase out fossil fuel rapidly in line with the Climate Act. The long title of the Bill should also be in line with these safeguards.
• Before any approval, a cost benefit analysis must be released that compares the LNG project against alternatives like demand reduction and renewables. It must calculate the full lifetime costs to the taxpayer and consumers, while quantifying security benefits across different supply scenarios.
• Assessments must use supply and demand projections that align strictly with Ireland’s Climate Act, carbon budgets, and the Climate Action Plan, ensuring the project doesn't rely on "inflated" gas demand forecasts that contradict national climate targets.
• The facility must be time-limited, with the Bill clearly defining a phase-out plan, a "sunset clause," and the conditions for decommissioning. The Committee also questions the relevance of the EU N-1 security standard as a rationale for the proposed terminal
• The CRU must assess the impact on consumer bills, ensuring that costs for the reserve are weighted toward large energy users rather than households and small businesses, while prohibiting the future transfer of the facility to any commercial entity.

Notes: 

See the Oireachtas Committee’s PLS report here - https://data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oireachtas/committee/dail/34/joint_committee_on_climate_environment_and_energy/reports/2026/2026-02-26_report-on-pre-legislative-scrutiny-of-the-general-scheme-of-the-strategic-gas-emergency-reserve-bill-2025_en.pdf  

The report also highlights that a range of significant concerns were raised with the Committee: 

• There was major opposition to the proposed climate-related provisions in the General Scheme with stakeholders raising that the Minister cannot simply "deem" the LNG terminal compliant with climate law in advance regardless of how much polluting emissions it actually produces.
• LNG, particularly from the US, was noted as increasingly insecure and just as vulnerable to attack as existing pipelines, as well as significantly increasing energy costs for households. Rather than providing security, the terminal risks further locking Ireland into expensive fossil fuel dependency.
• Data centres were identified as the primary drivers of gas demand and system stress; It notes that the LNG terminal could effectively come to serve as an insurance policy for these high-demand industrial gas users, while the financial risk would be socialised across already struggling households.
• The Department’s deliberate reliance on the N-1 gas security standard was challenged as a limited metric used to justify the Government’s decision and override climate obligations, ignoring the fact that security can be more cheaply and safely achieved through battery storage, fuel-switching, and demand-side management.

See Friends of the Earth’s statement to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate here: https://www.friendsoftheearth.ie/publications/our-submission-on-the-pre-legislative-scrutiny-of-the-propos/  

See General Scheme here - https://data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oireachtas/committee/dail/34/joint_committee_on_climate_environment_and_energy/submissions/2026/2026-01-22_general-scheme-of-the-strategic-gas-emergency-reserve-bill-2025_en.pdf The Minister had originally called on the Committee to forgo pre-legislative scrutiny, however this was rejected by the Committee