Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I was told we do not have district heating. There are examples, but they are communal heating systems and not necessarily district heating systems. There is a very big difference. I attended a meeting of the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action to hear about the Danish example of district heating.

I have a question for the NTA. We have talked before about whether a planning application for a development should have to include a carbon assessment. Should a transport carbon assessment of developments be done as well? There are two parts to this. I am thinking about where we try to retrofit permeability into culs-de-sac and car-focused 1970s, 1980s and 1990s housing estates. When we try to knock a hole in the wall to let people walk through, it is viewed as the end of the world in some cases. If such measures were described in terms of a carbon reduction assessment, would people be more persuaded? The two parts are whether any development, including the building of a new road, should have a carbon assessment for transport done and the matter of retrofitting permeability schemes.