Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses and thank them for attending today and for their presentations. Anything that would help our environment should be encouraged and assisted. It was stated in one of the presentations that work is taking place with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and an energy review has been carried out of Ireland's energy requirements. Local Government and councils played their part in the planning framework to make houses more efficient, putting in air to water heat pumps, geothermal systems and solar panels.

When it comes to a lot of these systems such as air to water, it goes back to the energy reviews. The current air to water system within a housing system only covers a house up to roughly 2,000 sq. ft and after it is being said that three-phase electricity is needed. If one does not have that then one is backing up the heating system through the immersions and through the ESB. Energy ratings are fine on paper but when the temperatures drop below -2°C or -3°C, a lot of these air systems do not work as efficiently as they say they will on paper. The energy ratings seem to be based on a platform on which everything is nice and calm.

I welcome the investment in offshore and onshore wind generation. The witnesses are saying it is starting on the east coast and we see from the point of view of ratings that a lot of energy comes from fossil fuels. The hospitals and schools are on fossil fuels because there is no other alternative. We have worked out throughout the years that anything that is being upgraded is in a highly populated area, such as Dublin and the large cities. They seem to be getting the first run at this, even though the wind farms and so on are going up in the countryside, where we live and where they are visual to us. To me, it is in the rural areas that this should be provided because they are doing their bit by supplying the land and having to look at these wind farms. They should get the first bite at the cherry and get some rewards for what they are doing to help the likes of Dublin and the other areas. I would like to see the rural areas, where we are working with the Government to create energy, to get the good energy ratings. If I drive an electric vehicle, I have to travel 20 miles to get to the nearest plug-in point from where I am living so it is not viable for me. The wind farms are in the countryside and the rural areas.

From an energy point of view, it was said that our targets for this year are 10% and for 2030, they are 30%. Ambitiously, the target for 2050 is 70%. I believe that is ambitious, especially when I consider that we do not have the proper energy ratings that are wanted for this country. As ambitious as these targets are, I welcome them and I will do whatever I can that is within my power to help. I would like to see it spread throughout the countryside. Electricity is expensive at present and it is outweighing a lot of the costs for people to run on fossil fuels. If we are encouraging people to work with energy, we need to make it efficient. We do not want to have a one-stop-shop that can dictate prices to people who are making the changes towards electricity and are going a greener way.