Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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There is no argument that there are a cohort of people who are exposed, who are living in poverty or close to poverty, who are on low incomes in cold homes and who will not have a retrofitted home or a heat pump by 2030. There is an argument they could have a shallow retrofit and an improvement on their heating systems that is not a heat pump that could be done at low cost and that could be done tomorrow.

The Government is building power plants and I want to make the transition to a zero emissions economy and energy and heating systems, but if we have a two-track approach that leaves a whole pile of people behind, then I can see that being divisive and problematic. I refer to the case for hydrotreated vegetable oil, HVO, which the Minister has made his point on, or liquefied petroleum gas, LPG, or as some refer to some element of it, bio LPG, and I recognise the considerations the Minister has to make in all of that, including the sustainability of it and fossil fuels. The most green fossil fuel is still a fossil fuel and we recognise that. Within the context of a transition, I am concerned, and it is not just me, that there will be a cohort of people left behind and for whom we are not providing a real solution in any meaningful way. That is other than saying there is technology on the way and that some time in the distant future, as yet to be defined when, there may be a solution for them. On managing the transition, that is something that has to be grasped.