Mr. Seamus Boland:

I thank members for their many generous comments on the reality of the situation. We were involved in the deep retrofit and there were some delays in it. I am glad to learn the anomalies will be looked at by the committee. We need to begin to look at properly feeding through allowances to people who are on the brink. That is essential.

Regarding the HVO, this is very timely. Last week, as part of my work in Brussels, I had meetings with experts who have managed a lot of this type of work in Germany. I hope to bring these experts to Ireland. As I see it, the premise of the question is whether, given the difficulties and barriers we face in rolling out retrofit and the length of time it will take, we can do something, at least in the meantime, to resolve the issue. This is certainly a real possibility with HVO because it is relatively cheap. However, as has already been pointed out, there are issues with availability and creating a native industry to produce the fuel. It should not be beyond the possibilities of a first world nation, with agencies like Teagasc and others, to create such an industry. This is the first thing that should be done. We need to look at the scale and what we will perhaps end up doing. It can also solve some of the problems of tractors and other heavy machinery on farms. While I realise we are straying a little from the topic we are here to discuss, some of the work the German experts have done involves trying to replace farm diesel with this kind of oil. It can be done, but we need the industry to come in behind it.

I am not saying that would be the favoured possibility, but if we are clear that we want to reduce the bill on farms and for domestic rural households and get them on the ladder of the just energy transition, we may have to import this fuel. That may be another solution. One thing that is clear is that this area has not really been touched on in Ireland. In Irish Rural Link we have just started the process of investigating. We have met people from the green fraternity who are producing technical solutions to technical problems and who believe this is a way forward. Given that we do not have a native industry producing the oil, this would mean ramping up production of certain types of vegetables. The horticulture industry might have something to say about that. There are many issues to be resolved. At €300 per household, it does have the advantage of making more households in rural Ireland much greener and more energy transformational. It is a way forward but it requires major effort. We are a bit behind on it but I will assist in any way I can to try to make it happen.