Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

A lot of this has already been dealt with by Deputy Doherty. He spoke about his own amendment, which just looks for something that is more directional and takes into account the anomalies with which he dealt. There will be certain firms, particularly smaller operations, that will need a greater level of support. It is a fair ask with regard to the credit unions.

I will throw another issue out in respect of which I will bring an amendment forward on Report Stage. It concerns whether we could have a variation on TBESS for communal or district heating systems. I am talking about the likes of Carlinn Hall in Dundalk. This difficulty with these is that initially they were meant to be fed by woodchip and biofuel but through a lot of unintended consequences, many of them ended up being fed by gas. A small number of companies, like Frontline or Kaizen, buy gas from Energia and this gas is used to heat the system and everybody is connected to this one system.

Prices have gone through the roof. In the case of Carlinn Hall, the price is around 42 cent per kilowatt hour. Other are operating at about 47 cent per kilowatt hour. We are talking about unsustainable levels. I dealt with the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and officials in his Department. In the long term, the solution is to change the source, to either woodchip or geothermal, and work is being done there. The SEAI and the working group that is looking at district heating are looking at putting all these solutions together. The quicker this happens, the better. I know the management company in Carlinn Hall has spoken to companies, third parties and the SEAI about finding solutions. The best-case scenario involves solutions that will be in place for next March or April and that will kick in for next winter but we are in a bad place at the moment. We are talking about mitigation.

The idea would be that TBESS could consider on a location-by-location basis providing companies like Frontline with a sufficient ring-fenced amount. This money would be divvied out among the residents. I should explain that in most of these situations, the likes of Frontline charge a service charge. It is a company that maintains the heating system. It does not actually make a profit from the gas. It buys it in but it is seen as a commercial operator.

The scenario is a disaster from cost and environmental perspectives. I know a lot of work is under way dealing with efficiencies. When the task force working group finishes its piece, I imagine there will be legislation that will not allow more of these to happen. While district heating is a great idea, these communal heating systems are not good from cost and environmental perspectives. Given where the price of gas is, the situation is a disaster. I acknowledge I am throwing this at the Minister but we need a solution to this issue. It is short-term mitigation. The long-term solution is to change the source and a significant amount of work on this is ongoing.