Irish power stations waste enough energy "to provide for the entire heating requirements of the country", it was claimed in the Dβil.

The heat currently wasted from the State's electricity sector "is equivalent to 21 million barrels of oil, worth over $600 million a year", Mr Jim Higgins, Fine Gael's public enterprise spokesman said.

He added that Ireland would be politically embarrassed and environmentally damaged unless there was a major shift in policy on energy consumption.

Mr Higgins's comments echoed those of the Minister of State for Public Enterprise, Mr Joe Jacob, who warned of the consequences for future generations if greenhouse gas emissions were not controlled and reduced.

Mr Jacob, who has responsibility for energy policy, was introducing the Sustainable Energy Bill which establishes the Irish Energy Centre as a statutory body, independent of Enterprise Ireland, which it has been part of until now.

Mr Jacob said Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions were 20 per cent above 1990 limits and Ireland had committed to limiting this to 13 per cent under the Kyoto Protocol.

There would be a significant rise in emissions by 2010 "if we continue on a business as usual basis, principally as a result of our rapid economic growth".

He said energy-related greenhouse gas emissions accounted for 55 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions in 1990 and were forecast to increase to 63 per cent in 2010 "if we do not devise policies and measures to abate such emissions".

These "are stark statistics, which we cannot ignore", he added.

The Fine Gael spokesman said Ireland had been "mind-boggingly slow" in pursuing new energy technology such as wind energy.

Ireland had the greatest wind capacity in western Europe but only 300 megawatts of electricity were produced from wind and other sources. Denmark did not have the same wind levels but produced more than 1,000 megawatts, and employed more than 8,000 people on wind farms.

Labour's environment spokesman Mr Eamon Gilmore said Ireland would not meet its Kyoto commitments unless "very dramatic changes" occurred "in our consumption patterns, transport and how our industry and economy operate".

Mr Seymour Crawford (FG, Cavan-Monaghan) said Ireland should follow the example of Scunthorpe in England which had a biomass plant that used "chicken and turkey litter" for energy and was located in an industrial estate beside a chocolate factory. This type of plant could supply both heat and power and would be ideal for his constituency which produced two-thirds of all the poultry in Ireland.

The Sustainable Energy Bill now goes to committee stage.