Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am giving them serious consideration and I am glad the Deputy raised them today. A policy decision was taken in the past, particularly about conversion of fossil fuel boilers, that there would have to be a full conversion to heat pumps. There are other technologies and fuel sources. It was a concern in the past, especially with regard to HVO, that we would not have the required supply of HVO to be able to convert existing systems to using it. I am actively looking at that. There may be an opportunity to do that.

On a full retrofit, if we take the Deputy's area in the midlands, which has seen massive change, the just transition needs to support that change. We were able to retrofit significant numbers of social homes, but for families in private homes it is a significant cost. Regarding the SEAI grants that are available, I have a submission from the SEAI, which I received after meeting it on a few occasions, to look at options for how we could reframe the grants to look at - not the full retrofit which is costly; people get a big grant for it- breaking them down further to make them more accessible. To answer the Deputy's question directly, yes, HVO and pellets need to be looked in relation to conversion of existing fuel boilers.