Infrastructure is creaking, Minister.

They need new investment on the trunk main between Staleen and Ratoath.

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the Bill, which proposes to merge two existing research funding agencies into a new entity, Taighde Éireann. It will be important that this step is matched by efforts from Government to address Ireland's poor performance in funding research and development when compared to EU standards. Making Ireland competitive in this context will be key, among other things, to a just energy transition, our energy security and, ultimately, our energy independence. While th…

The Irish people have watched in horror as Gaza faces annihilation. Missiles rain down upon 2 million people who have been denied food, fuel and water in one of the most densely populated areas of the world. Israel acts with impunity through its indiscriminate slaughter of a trapped population. Entire families have been killed in their beds while many more are trapped in the rubble. More than 26,000 people have been killed. Some 2 million have been displaced in an event that resembles the Nakba of 1948. This cannot…

I am asking the Minister about the ongoing high cost of energy in Ireland, his plans to identify underlying factors for this and his further plans to address these costs. Will he make a statement on the matter?

There is no doubt that workers and families are really struggling with their energy costs. We can see that as presented in the numbers in arrears, those contacting St. Vincent de Paul, for example, and others struggling with energy bills. Almost one in four domestic gas customers are in arrears at this stage. Therefore, there are real challenges there. However, my question specifically asks about the underlying factors driving the high cost of energy in this country. The Minister stated that the CRU said there was …

We are getting into some of the key issues there. The Minister mentioned the distributed nature of the population, and we hear that regularly, but there are many distributed populations across the European Union and far geographically bigger countries than Ireland that pay half the price we do for electricity and energy. Therefore, where is the evidence base to that point? On planning and the grid, the sector itself says we are further away from our renewables targets than we were this time last year because of del…

I ask the Minister to set out what solutions are available for homes that are not suitable for heat pumps or for householders who cannot afford heat pump installation, whether biofuel boilers in the residential sector are being considered as part of the solution, and if he will make a statement on the matter.

The Minister's response reflects the current position. With regard to the targets for heat pump installations - 45,000 existing and 170,000 new dwellings by 2025, and up to 400,000 existing and 280,000 new dwellings by 2030 - it has to be said that the Government is missing a lot of targets. It is missing this target by an absolute mile. Just 9,469 heat pumps have been installed since 2020. This is nowhere near what is needed. The difficulty is with the cost but also with regard to whether houses are appropriate fo…

I asked about heat pumps.

What about heat pumps?

I am not for a second suggesting we should ignore it but we need to provide a pathway for those hard-to-reach households. We cannot ignore them. I would look at the number of heat pumps that have been installed and consider how many are in the poorest, coldest homes. How many are in homes where people are burning turf and sticks? I would say it is a tiny fraction because those houses are not suitable or the homeowners cannot afford the installation. We need to provide a solution for them. I know there are questions…

Is the Minister aware of EirGrid's recent warning that capacity deficits have been identified in the ten years to 2032? What steps has he taken to address the structural features of the electricity market which contributed to the electricity market prices, as noted in the recently published McCarthy report? Will he make a statement on the matter?

The EirGrid report notes that steps need to be taken to avoid shortages and those steps may include keeping older power plants open beyond their scheduled closing date. This has particular implications for the use of fossil fuels and emissions. Will the Minister outline if that is the intended strategy? An alternative is, of course, to deliver on and go beyond our renewable energy targets. Another alternative would be to reduce demand. My two questions relate to extending the lives of our existing plants and reduci…

I will ask about demand management and reduction in light of EirGrid's projections in respect of the significant expected increase in demand, especially for data centres, to 2032. I am sure the Minister is aware that the International Energy Agency stated that EirGrid has underestimated. That agency predicts that data centres in Ireland may double electricity consumption over the next two years. Is that something the Minister sees happening? If it is, how will that be managed in the context of a constrained electri…

I ask the Minister about the eligibility criteria for the warmer homes scheme, whether he will extend the scheme to people on invalidity pensions, and how he targets it.

The Minister very much needs to review this scheme and extend its eligibility. The Minister did not touch on how the Department identifies homes to be prioritised. Is his Department identifying the coldest and oldest homes? What way does his Department go about that? A point was made earlier that those with particular medical needs should also be prioritised.

I am happy to move on, Chair, if you want to take the next-----

I fully support these amendments and thank Deputy Murphy for tabling them. The points are well covered and these issues were raised, not just by me and others in the Opposition but also by the Minister of State's party colleague and Chairman of the climate committee, Deputy Leddin. We have the opportunity again this evening to go over that ground. It is absolutely essential that public bodies are in line with climate law, the climate action plan, carbon budgets and sectoral emissions ceilings, and that is the inten…

I agree with Deputy Murphy. I feel the tune has changed since Committee Stage. At worst, I thought we would hear tonight an acknowledgement of a problem that would be addressed at some stage in the future, and we had hoped to hold the Government to account for that. Instead, we are hearing there is nothing to see here, which is a change of tune. That is deeply concerning for the reasons outlined by Deputy Murphy. In practice, as was spelled out to our committee, the practice is entirely different. It has the potent…