Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will make one point and then I have a follow on question in the area of residential heat. The Minister spoke about CAP 24 being very similar to CAP 23. In the area of residential heat, for our part, Sinn Féin has spoken about the opportunities, and others are in exactly the same place as we can see from the partnership on climate change and sustainable energy, CCSE, from Friends of the Earth and from others. There are opportunities and a necessity in the context of local authority homes and retrofitting for homes that use solid fuels such as turf and coal. There is opportunity in recognising that workforce is an issue in this regard, and in looking at aggregating and taking an area-based approach. Fingal County Council has an ongoing pilot and there is opportunity to significantly expand that. I will leave this with the Minister.

Heat pumps and heat pump delivery is also an area that has been identified. I have looked at the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, energy projection out to 2030, which document was published this month. Any of us dealing with this in this space for the past number of years are dealing with people who have had heat pumps installed. There are challenges around the homes that are appropriate and can take a heat pump. A heat loss indicator study is ongoing. There is also the challenge of the economics of a heat pump. It is acknowledged by SEAI that for many people heat pumps can be very expensive to run compared to fossil fuels. Will CAP 24 contain anything new for heat pump delivery either in supports or alternative options there?