Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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The Deputy asked about district heating. There is a new subhead for it. A new research programme will start on it, or a new scheme is being scaled up. There has been ongoing research on geothermal energy. A report is due for publication shortly. Research has been done involving my Department and Grangegorman campus. Some boreholes have been dug to depths of 1 km and 3 km to explore the possibility of creating district heating systems with them.

There has been co-operation with the equivalent body for geothermal in the North of Ireland. Northern Ireland appears to show more potential than the South. There has been an allocation of money for that North-South co-operation for next year. The report is due for publication later this year.

I will move to landfill remediation for a moment. These are historic dump sites that in many cases are sources of great pollution, sometimes by the coast, and they are being remediated in many cases to form public amenities such as public parks. The best known of them is Kerdiffstown in County Kildare, which is now in its final works phase. It is the largest project of its kind in the State and it will transform from being an illegal landfill into a recreational park. The total works contract awarded was €19.6 million, and, of that, €7 million is for 2023. There are sites around the country. So far, €6.4 million has been allocated in 2023 for closed landfills. That covers 120 different sites. Some €9 million has been allocated for private and illegal sites. That covers ten illegal sites. Then there is another €200,000 for so-called pre-1977 sites, which covers six different sites. In fact, there is one on the border of Wicklow and my constituency in Dún Laoghaire, which is on the coast and is constantly eroded by the sea, leading to historic pieces of dumped material landing in the ocean. I am well aware of the work that goes on there.

Deputy O'Rourke also asked about the Inland Fisheries Ireland, IFI, budget and the situation that is going on there. He will be aware that the chair of IFI resigned her position by letter on 11 January in line with the provisions of the Inland Fisheries Act 2010. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, considered her resignation and that of other board members and the implications for IFI. As there were five vacancies on the IFI board, with the chairperson's resignation and the challenges this has created in allowing the board to effectively carry out its statutory functions, the Minister decided to exercise his powers under section 18 of the Inland Fisheries Act 2010 and he removed the current members of IFI on a no-fault basis. This will allow for the appointment of a new board, which will happen later this year. The Minister intends to appoint new members of IFI as soon as possible and in accordance with the provisions of the Inland Fisheries Act. To ensure that IFI is in a position to perform its functions effectively as quickly as possible, the Minister has also used his powers under section 18(5) of the Act to appoint on an interim basis Mr. Tom Barry and Mr. Seamus Neely, the former chief executives of Carlow and Donegal county councils, to perform the functions of IFI, pending the appointment of a new full board through the statutory appointments process, with the support of the Public Appointments Service. In addition to the core functions of IFI as set out in section 7 of the Inland Fisheries Act, the Minister has instructed Mr. Barry and Mr. Neely to prioritise the full and prompt consideration of a number of protected disclosures within IFI's protected disclosure policy, which are understood to have been received by IFI in recent months. These could not be progressed by the board of IFI as a result of the recent resignations. As the Deputy is aware, there are a number of criminal investigations following the protected disclosures and I am not in a position to comment on the likely outcome of the criminal investigations. I think Deputy O'Rourke is aware there is a situation there.