The Government's energy security package, published in November 2023, contains a wide range of measures to strengthen Ireland’s energy security in the long term, including through reduced and responsive energy demand, a commitment to delivering on a renewables-led energy system, enhancing resilience across energy supply and enhancing oversight and governance mechanisms in the energy sector. I welcome the publication of the All-Island Generation Capacity Statement 2023-2032, which is an annual report from EirGrid th…

It is essential we do both. The most recent statement about what happened last year shows the benefit of that approach. As I said, we are slightly better positioned than we were last year because our demand has not grown by as much as EirGrid had expected because of efficiency measures applied in a variety of ways. We focus first on energy efficiency in everything we do. That is absolutely the case. Last year saw a significant reduction in emissions from the power sector. We will get the figures in due course. What…

I do not see electricity demand doubling in the next few years. We cannot afford for that to happen either on a security of supply basis or on an emissions reduction basis. That is not going to be tolerated. We have a large number of data centres on our system. They account for a large percentage of demand. They bring enormous benefits to the economy, which we should not ignore. Additional data centres will come online because they were agreed prior to the formation of this Government. We saw that we cannot provide…

As the Deputy said, the climate action plan set ambitious targets to retrofit the equivalent of 500,000 homes to a building energy rating of B2 on a cost-optimal basis and the installation of 400,000 heat pumps in existing homes to replace older and less efficient heating systems by the end of this decade. The national retrofit plan sets out the Government's approach to delivering on these targets. Output is really ramping up under the plan, reaching 27,200 houses in 2022 and 47,950 in 2023. One of the key principl…

Since the Government came to office, expenditure on this has increased from €40 million to €210 million. Members should be honest. Is that not a significant and incredible increase? The great thing we know is that thanks to the carbon tax, which Deputy Paul Murphy opposes, it will increase by the same amount next year. It is predictable, so you can get the workers and reduce waiting times because we set up a system whereby we know it will grow every year. We are going to devote half the money we raise in carbon tax…

I am not.

Again, I take the point. I have not included social housing and the Deputy is right; we need to do that as well. I am going from memory as I do not have the figures in front of me but spending before the lifetime of this Government was about €10 million and has increased to about €90 million last year. A 900% increase in spending is not small. What is an increase from €40 million to €210 million? Is it 800%? Can somebody do the maths quickly for me? It is a 500% increase. That is not small. If we achieve a 500% inc…

Our reliance on fossil fuels is incompatible with the Paris Agreement and a low-carbon future. Ireland supports measures that reinforce and advance our transition away from reliance on fossil fuels and while we have not signed the fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty, we continue to follow its progress and development. We are acting domestically and internationally to tackle our reliance on fossil fuels. Following the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act 2018, the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund divested from fossil fuel c…

It is a complicated issue. If the conclusion of my last comments reflected that, that is the reality. I have spent a fair bit of time in discussions. I attended in New York last September a special meeting hosted by, I think, Tuvalu and Vanuatu - small island states. The meeting was mainly attended by small island states, including Ireland, and we spent a lot of time discussing how we might progress this treaty. As I said, in COP28 I attended that high level dialogue. I think I was one of very few ministers there. …

I know, but others have. This is complicated because there is a real issue. We have more than enough oil, gas and coal to burn this planet, in particular oil and gas. We have to stop exploring for new oil and gas. I was arguing that, not just within COP28, and it was not greenwashing. Yes, it did not go as far as I would like to see, but there was significant progress in tripling renewables, doubling efficiency, and committing to changing the international finance system so we get the $4.5 trillion we need into the…

I am happy to help shape it. Deputy Murphy is absolutely right that the world is in a perilous position when it comes to climate. Stefan Rahmstorf spoke the other day about the interconnected nature of the various tipping points we risk going over if we do not adhere to the Paris climate agreement. Even that is a probability risk we set. We know now it is not a political wishlist. It is a physical limit that we have to keep as our North Star that we have to meet. We should also be careful not to make people despond…

That has to stop. That has to end. Included in that, going back to the financing issue, and again citing the IEA, because I am particularly involved with it at the moment, we know that by the end of this decade half of the money currently going into fossil fuels has to divest from fossil and go into clean. Those industries have to change. In a similar way, of the $4.5 trillion per annum we know we need early in the next decade, $1.5 trillion of that has to go into the emerging countries that are completely locked o…

Government approved and published the Energy Security in Ireland to 2030 report late last year. Its supporting annexes and work programmes of 28 actions are included. The comprehensive report concludes that Ireland’s future energy will be secure by moving from a fossil fuel-based energy system to an electricity-led system, maximising our renewable energy potential, flexibility and, as I said earlier, integration into Europe’s energy systems. With regard to gas, the report determines that Ireland’s natural gas suppl…

First, we need security for people. I hope the Deputy would agree that what has happened in recent years, including the Nord Stream gas pipelines being blown up and the Baltic gas interconnector into Finland being broken by an anchor being deliberately dragged across it, presents a risk, low risk as it may be. If it were to arise, the risk to our people is immense because while we would have backup power for a while in the distillate we store close to our power generation stations, in a number of days that would co…

I wish to correct what the Deputy said. It is untrue. It will not be used to provide backup when the wind is not blowing. He is right that there is not an example, as Not Here Not Anywhere has said, because all the other energy terminals built in Europe were built to increase supply and that is not the case here. It is exceptional. We are different. We do not offer oil and gas licences. We do not invest in fossil fuel companies. We are part of international alliances recognising the climate is the greatest security…

With approximately 4.8 GW of onshore wind, Ireland is a world leader in levels of installed wind energy capacity per capita as well as in the integration of variable renewable electricity onto the grid. According to provisional figures published by SEAI for the electricity generation mix for 2023, renewable generation, including wind, increased by over 9% compared with 2022 figures. Rapidly growing solar generation capacity in Ireland complements wind generation, with more than 1 GW of solar now installed, making a…

We have to break those logjams and the job of the political system, which the Deputy would be aware of, particularly at ministerial level in our Department, is to break the logjam and to ensure our administrative system is able to deliver on the scale of ambition we have. The Deputy cited three things, one of which was onshore wind guidelines. We have to deliver those this year. It has been between two Departments for so many years but that has to be resolved and will be resolved this year. We have to get better sp…

The reform, the upgrading and the modernisation of our planning laws is probably the number one piece of Government legislation. It is, because it affects every aspect of our society. I will make a couple points on that. First, it is very complicated because the new Bill is 700 pages. The Deputy will be on the committee the Bill goes to, or rather he will not as it will go to Steven Matthews's committee rather than Brian Leddin's. I believe there are some 1,000 amendments. That will involve a great deal of work fro…

I thank the Deputy. The warmer homes scheme targets support to those most in need and living in the least efficient homes so that the resources available can have the greatest impact. To that end, eligibility for the scheme is linked to a number of Department of Social Protection payments. Homeowners can check their eligibility for the scheme through a recently launched online application feature on the website of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland or can apply in writing to SEAI. Applications are assessed…

I will give detail with regard to who is eligible. The eligibility payments are for those in receipt of fuel allowance, jobseeker's allowance for more than six months, working family payment, one-parent family payment, domiciliary care allowance, carer's allowance where the recipient is living with the person they are caring for, and disability allowance for more than six months, or where they have a child under seven years of age. That is continuing to be broadened. It has not stayed static. There has been signifi…