Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as ucht na ceiste a ardú ar an ábhar an-tábhachtach seo. I thank the Deputy for his question on this very important subject. As he knows, Ireland has one of the most ambitious home retrofit targets in the world. The national retrofit plan sets out how these targets will be met, including with an €8 billion financial allocation in the period to 2030. I met my British counterpart, Ed Miliband, recently in Liverpool. The British Government is struck by how advanced our retrofit program…

The warmer homes scheme is important because it focuses on lower incomes families. I am looking at this issue. For context, the average value of upgrades in 2015 was just €2,600. In 2024, the most recent year for which I have full annualised data, it was €27,700. Deeper upgrades mean more lower income homeowners can benefit to a greater extent from the scheme and the upgrades can tackle energy poverty by reducing their bills. Having said that, we need to look again at how we report those waiting times, particularly…

Affordability is critical. If we look at it from a positive standpoint first, about 162,000 homes have been supported for energy upgrades and 55,000 of those are B2 upgrades. We have to look at B2 or B2 equivalents and where the house is going. To improve the energy and heating in a home, particularly in older homes, the cost of getting to B2 can be substantial, if not prohibitive. That is why the home energy upgrade loan scheme, which was launched last year, has been extended to seven credit union groups and there…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta agus go n-éirí leis ina phost nua. As part of EU efforts to tackle climate change, Ireland has accepted specific emissions reductions targets for the period to 2030, set by the EU effort sharing regulation, ESR. These targets are also in line with domestic commitments in Irish law as set out in the climate Act 2021. Ireland can meet these targets by reducing emissions and through additional compliance but it is going to be very challenging. Let us be straight about that. We are goin…

The future is renewables and particularly offshore renewables. We have six projects off the east coast in planning, as the Deputy knows. We have our first DMAP through, which is in the south east. I will be bringing forward proposals to the Government in the coming weeks to accelerate the DMAP process. I have met stakeholders, including in the development sector, and will meet representatives of the Climate Change Advisory Council this afternoon. It is critical but we have a resource that we can use, unlike other c…

The State is investing tens of millions in this sector right now. We have put the legislative infrastructure in place. That was done in the previous Dáil. I had the honour of bringing forward the Maritime Area Planning Act, which was passed in this House, although it was not supported by everyone. It saw the establishment of MARA. I will meet representatives of MARA next Wednesday to discuss how we can streamline our consenting process. Next week, I will be bringing to Cabinet the Climate Action Plan 2025, which wa…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 8 and 25 together. We have had a good discussion on LNG already, because we have been here since 10.23 a.m., but I thank the Deputy for his question.

Well done, that is great. I hope the Deputy was working with colleagues in a constructive manner this morning, as one would expect. I thank him for the question. I know he has a certain view on this. I mentioned to colleagues earlier that we could not ignore the advice we have received with regard to our own energy security, and the FSRU is needed. I am going to be publishing the CEPA analysis in the coming weeks. I have made an offer to Deputies Daly, Whitmore, Heneghan and anyone else who is interested and wants …

The Deputy has a bit of a fixation on this. I have talked about-----

Yes, you do. The reality of it is that I cannot ignore the risks the State has with regard to our energy supply. It would be dereliction of my duty as Minister on behalf of our citizens if I ignored the independent advice I have with regard to the risk to our society, economy and country should there be a disruption to our gas supply. I said this earlier, but I appreciate that the Deputy was at the Business Committee. I told colleagues that the legal advice that was received by my predecessor in this regard was ver…

It has not. It suits the Deputy's narrative-----

-----that he goes out and starts telling people we are buying fracked gas from the United States. That is not the question at all, but it suits the Deputy's narrative that he will be able to stoke up anger in this regard. We are doing pretty well as a country with regard to our transition to green energy. On an average day, approximately 33% of our energy is generated through renewables. We need to do a lot better, and we are going to accelerate that. That means things like the Planning and Development Act we passe…

-----for opposing it. I brought the Bill forward. On one hand, some Deputies opposite will say they want a green transition and to move towards renewables - we are doing that - but when we bring forward any legislation that actually assists in doing that, they oppose it just because it is the Government that brings forward the legislation,.

No, you do not.

You are twisting-----

You are twisting what I said again.

That is not what I said.

You are twisting it now.

That is not what I said.

Carry on and I will respond.