Mr. Samuel Geraghty:

I thank the Deputy for his questions. Taking the first question as to why Ireland is an outlier in the use of renewable heat, the biggest driver of that is the price ratio. In the Nordic countries, which have had the highest uptake of this technology for the last 30 or 40 years, the price ratio has always been low. This has been for security reasons to ensure there is no reliance on gas. In Ireland, however, we have relied on gas and fossil fuels for a long time. They have been abundant and cheap.

That has been one of the big drivers behind it. To address the second question, which was about surplus renewables, it is a question of ramping systems up and down in response to supply and demand on the grid. When surplus renewable electricity is generated, the machines can be turned up to make greater use of it. That is the mechanism we are talking about.

On the appetite within industry, we see massive appetite in the food and beverage, dairy and manufacturing industries. I am sure my colleagues can give a better answer to that third question.