Is that one of our new Local Link Connecting Ireland bus services? Does the route have five services a day or three services a day?

I would make the point that across the country, this investment in rural public transport is taking off like a rocket. Young people in particular are availing of those services. I will look at that because it is a success. It started in Kerry with the first one around the Dingle Peninsula. There was a twentyfold increase in passenger numbers. Irish people are dying to get to use public transport. What I hope is that when we start to see new services filling up, that gives us the case to go further. It requires mone…

I thank the Senator for raising what is a very important issue for the county of Kildare and the people in the town of Naas, but it also allows me to outline some of the work we are doing on these pathfinder projects and why they have been introduced. As the Senator said, 35 projects have been agreed with a wide application. We went to every county council and asked them to come forward with proposals. We selected what we thought were the best projects from them and those that could be shown would be delivered by t…

I have it here.

I absolutely agree with the Senator. It is time for action. The exact cost will obviously have to be set out. That was an indicative amount. It could be less. It depends on how the project is staged. Works, as I said, have to be completed by the end of 2025 to qualify. The funding is available. That political commitment in the use of the climate fund is absolutely clear and certain. The only question is whether Kildare County Council can work in a timely manner to deliver it for the people of that town. I hope and …

We will have to act very fast here. As I said, we have regular meetings of our sustainable mobility task force reviewing each and every project and if one does fall out of a credible timeline, we will reallocate the funding. I hope that does not happen.

I thank Senator Chambers for addressing a really important issue. Because of our climate targets, we have to retrofit all those homes below the B2 rating. That amounts to approximately 1.5 million homes. We estimate we will do it, according to the plan, decade by decade. In this first decade, it will involve half a million homes and the installation of 400,000 heat pumps. Heat pumps are the energy heating system of the future. They are more efficient. They are cleaner. They are more economic. They can allow us to u…

I do not disagree with what the Senator has said. We will continue to revise and review, as I said. I have two points to make. The reason we are seeing the numbers of completed works grow dramatically is that the cost of fuel remains very high by historical comparisons. The advantage of investing in the home is that it brings down fuel bills and improves the value of the house. Houses with a low BER sell for a higher value. In the interim, while living in the house, the experience is incredibly different. It is muc…

I am very glad to have the chance to respond to the Deputy's question. Can I put it first and foremost in a very broad framework? The day before yesterday, for the first time in recorded history, the temperature of our planet went above 17°C on average. This is above the 1.5°C increase we are hoping to avert through the Paris climate agreement. For most of June, as the Leas-Chathaoirleach will know, we had an extraordinary situation whereby the temperature of the air above the surface of the sea off the west coast …

The Deputy is right. When the Limerick-Ennis service reopened, it defied expectations and there was huge demand but that has always been the case. When the Cobh line to Cork was reopened, passenger demand was way ahead of expectations. There are significant passenger numbers on the line from Ennis to Athenry. Every time, we open passenger rail services, the public shows with its feet that it wants it. None of the investment that will be required to reopen the western rail corridor is in the existing NDP. We do not …

I thank the Deputies for their contributions today and on Tuesday. As Deputies said throughout this debate, there is significant financial pressure on households and businesses as a result of continued high energy prices. The Government is aware of this, and as previously stated, has introduced a range of measures and supports. I am confident the legislation before the House today will provide for a fair collection of revenues from fossil fuel companies, which have generated unexpected surplus revenues as a result …

My clear message to energy suppliers is that prices for customers should be reduced at the earliest opportunity. Unprecedented increases in energy prices since the outbreak of war in Ukraine have led the Government to take sustained action over the past year to support households and businesses to meet cost-of-living challenges. Direct measures to reduce energy bills included the €800 in total of energy credits between April 2022 and April 2023, reductions in VAT and the temporary business support scheme, TBSS. Ele…

I have not received that letter. The Government will approach the issue of Tara Mines in the way that is appropriate, in particular the Ministers for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Social Protection. We will consider any issue in terms of energy prices. It is not possible for us to intervene directly to change energy price contracts that the company may have. I would like to see the company return to operation. It provides a valuable and important service to the local area, as well as nationally and internati…

The first thing I have to do early next week is to attend the European Council, which, as I said, is a policy area where we can change, inform and direct the market system and energy prices. I will also work with the Minister, Deputy Coveney, as well as the Minister for Social Protection, because they have a critical role in terms of any supports or other arrangements for any industry. It is something that the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment has a key role in and we will be fully supportive and work i…

The Climate Action Plan 2023 sets out that emissions from the residential sector must reduce from 7 MtCO2eq in 2018, to 4 MtCO2eq in 2030. The Government plans to achieve this target primarily through the national retrofit plan and the roll-out of renewable heating. The national retrofit plan sets out our target to upgrade the equivalent of 500,000 homes to a building energy rating, BER, of B2 cost-optimal or carbon equivalent, and to install 400,000 heat pumps in existing homes. Good progress is being made. In 202…

There is no holding back of progress on the part of our Department. I expect to bring the report before the Government and to publish it this month.

Yes. It is urgent that we proceed. I was very pleased to launch the first major scheme in Tallaght where excess heat from a data centre is being used to power a lot of public buildings, and that will extend to social housing. I had a very fruitful meeting last week regarding another potential development in Blanchardstown in west Dublin where, again, we will take waste heat from data centres. This has very extensive potential for heating social housing, hospitals and local authority and other offices. There is majo…

We need to be careful as there are very different types of heating systems which may be called district heating. Some are more like communal heating systems where people share a common heating source in an apartment building. The district heating system, the likes of the Poolbeg one, is where we are going. Excess heat from another neighbouring source, or which is generated outside the apartment building and shipped into that building, is where we need to go. I agree with the Deputy that it has been very frustrating…

My Department is currently finalising its review of security of energy supply of Ireland’s electricity and natural gas systems. The review is focused on the period to 2030, but in the context of ensuring a sustainable transition to a net zero economy by 2050. The Government’s policy objectives are to ensure energy is affordable, sustainable, and secure, as well as in line with Ireland’s climate targets and statutory carbon budgets. Underpinned by these objectives, the review is considering the risks to both natural…

It is my position. As Minister, I have to look at all three. As policymakers, we must all do so. Climate must come first because there is the physical reality that we cannot avoid the risk of passing various tipping points. We have to stay within certain limits. Those limits are set by physics and the meteorological system. They cannot vary. There is a real limit on the environmental side. When it comes to providing security or competitiveness, there are always a variety of different ways by which that can be done,…