Mr. Robert Deegan:

The Deputy mentioned hydrotreated vegetable oil, HVO. There is a lot of talk about it at the moment. The policy on the supports the Government provides is informed by a comprehensive piece of work that was done by the SEAI a few years ago, the National Heat Study, which looked at the best way to transition to the heating systems of the future and identified the most suitable technologies. The technologies that came out of that comprehensive analysis - I think it involved seven or eight detailed research papers - were heat pumps and district heating.

The concern around HVO is the availability of it in the quantities that would be needed for it to be used as people's heating source. Also, when we are looking at different uses for inputs like HVO we have to consider what is the best sector to apply them to and the research and analysis point to HVO being best used in the transport sector where there are not available alternatives. In the heating sector, especially with residential heating, after a really thorough evaluation of the various alternatives district heating and heat pumps were identified as the optimal solutions. That is not to say individual homeowners cannot make the change themselves but it is just about the Department and Government's focus. We have a very generous budget but it is limited and we need to ensure the funding is used in the most effective and efficient way, which is through heat pumps, insulation and district heating in due course.