Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 14 February 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment

Effect of proposed withdrawal of the UK from the EU on the Irish Energy Market: Discussion.

5:00 pm

Mr. Kevin Brady:

It did, and three consultations were initially planned. In order to accelerate progress on the scheme, we are combining the second of those two consultations into a single consultation to take place later this year.

Moving on to heat, I think it was earlier this month or in January that we launched a renewable heat incentive consultation. It is aimed at two of our targets: not just the renewable energy in heat, but also the emissions reduction in heat. It is restricted to the non-emissions trading system, ETS, sector and is very much aimed at the larger industries, in which we see the most cost-effective solutions. There has been a budget allocation for that this year, so that scheme is planned to be up and running this year. It is a key scheme to contribute not only to our 2020 targets, but also forward to our 2030 targets. Regarding the heat sector, there is deep retrofit, our better energy schemes and a new retrofit scheme, about which my colleague might provide more detail.