I thank Deputy O'Rourke. Ireland, along with other member states, submitted its draft updated national energy and climate plan in 2023. The European Commission has issued country-specific recommendations to the member states, including Ireland, regarding their draft updated NECPs. My Department, with the assistance and contributions of colleagues across Government, is working through the Commission's recommendations with a view to addressing and incorporating them in the final updated NECP, which is due to be submi…

I agree with the Commission's recommendations and comments. We need to recognise this first draft of the NECP only in effect took into account measures the Government had committed to up to 2021. We are now modelling "With additional measures", which we have already included in our climate action plan annual updates. They will answer a lot of the Commission's concerns regarding the need for additional ambition and further progress and measures. It has taken time to do that modelling. I regret we did not have it all…

Yes. We will have to provide it by the end of June, as I said. We have gone out for public consultation on the first draft. That closes today. Anyone could make a submission to make their comments on it. We will publish a further draft, go out to consultation with that and then submit it before the end of June. The Deputy is right about fossil fuel subsidies. They are a critical issue right across the world. We have looked to withdraw them in a variety of areas. An example might be our change in the use of peat in …

I thank the Deputy. I understand he is primarily looking to discuss the use of HVO in the heating context and my comments may focus on that. Our climate action plan includes a range of measures to address the use of fossil fuel in heating systems in buildings and the national heat study contains the detailed analysis that is informing the development of options, policies and measures to decarbonise the heating and cooling sectors to 2050. The study considered a number of potential decarbonisation options for a wide…

There is nothing to stop anyone using HVO in a variety of different applications. It is a question of where we should put public money. How do we use policy measures to steer and give a direction into the next two decades as to where we are going? Heating systems, once installed, are there for a long time. The Deputy is right. HVO comes from a variety of different sources such as waste oil from the restaurant or other industries but in relatively small volumes. The international trade volume causes concern about la…

I agree with the Deputy. The use of biomass in power generation has a role. The main example we have at the moment is the Edenderry power plant, managed by Bord na Móna, which was designed to be 100% biomass compatible and has done exactly that. We switched away from the burning of peat in it. We are using 100% wood material now. I met Bord na Móna on this issue last week and I am told it is working very effectively. It is using a lot of relatively low-grade waste wood material. There is a huge potential opportunit…

Last year, almost 5,900 homes were upgraded under the warmer homes free upgrade scheme, with an average spend of €25,000 per home and €157 million in total expenditure. A range of upgrades are recommended for each property depending on the characteristics of the home and the suitability of the works available based on a technical survey of the home. Applications for this scheme can be cancelled by either the homeowner or the SEAI. Homeowners can cancel the application for reasons, including ill health or moving hou…

If I may say so, the warmer homes scheme is an incredible success and enjoys great support from Government. Some €157 million is provided for the scheme a year and that figure will increase year on year. We are meeting our targets. It is working. The scheme is very popular and there has been a large increase in the number of applications because people realise that this 100% State support for those in the home is real. To illustrate the scale of the change that has happened, some ten years ago, around when Deputy N…

There is a range of other measures and supports. There is grant support of up to 50% to allow householders to do that. However, we made a conscious strategic decision to move away from the old system, where it was typically small measures that were provided and when a house might have to be visited three, four or five times to get it up to the standard we want. We deliberately decided to focus on really making the home efficient to help people out of fuel poverty and to improve their health. We decided that the who…

In December 2022, Government published the energy poverty action plan. The plan sets out the range of measures introduced to ensure that those least able to afford increased energy costs are protected and supported to adequately heat and power their homes. The implementation of the action plan is being monitored by a cross-departmental interagency steering group chaired by my Department. The inaugural energy poverty stakeholder forum was held in July 2023. The forum provided a platform for stakeholders to collabora…

I helped launch EnergyCloud in Clondalkin last year. I absolutely support the initiative. It is part of the solution to address energy poverty, to lower emissions and to make more efficient use of our renewable energy powers. The answer is "Yes", but the exact mechanisms in terms how it evolves and develops obviously must be within European and other laws. I absolutely believe it has a vital role to play and can be part of the solution to cut energy poverty, cut our emissions and enhance renewable power.

I agree with all three Deputies. There is huge potential for us in the use of the smart metering system to improve both energy savings and the use of wind power and, in particular, solar power. I also agree that the application or the widespread deployment of solar will be a major part of the energy future, even in cloudy Ireland. I absolutely agree that all three of those initiatives are something we should advance at full speed and in every way we can. Deputy Naughten referred to the SEAI, which has a role, but I…

I am glad to report to Deputy Ó Cuív that last year was a very successful year for renewable electricity in Ireland. According to figures published by the SEAI renewable sources accounted for an average of 46% of the electricity generation in Ireland last year, which was an increase of over 9% on the 2022 figure. Ireland now has more than 6 GW of renewable electricity generation capacity. Wind, particularly onshore wind, remains our largest source of renewable power. It accounted for 39% of all electricity generate…

To give some of the figures, wind accounted for 39.5% of our power. That was some 9%-----

It is 9% year on year.

Yes. Hydro is 3%-----

Last year, we had very high water levels. Typically, it is close to 2%. As a result, there was a 50% increase in hydro. As I said, this is because the water volumes were very high. For solar it was 1.4%, which was a 30-fold increase. It was an increase of 3,000%.

I do not have the exact figures.

Those figures will bear out, I am sure-----

The figures are provisional. It requires the EPA to the do the final greenhouse gas inventories.