Ms Yvonne Murphy:

I extend my thanks to the Chair and members of the committee for inviting us to speak this morning. I am joined by my colleague, Dr. David Connolly. We represent the interests of Ireland's district energy sector. Dr. Connolly is one of the co-founders of the Irish District Energy Association, or IRDEA, as we are likely to refer to it today. He continues to play a leading role as our current chairperson. I am IRDEA's first chief executive officer and have served in that capacity since the beginning of this year. Prior to my appointment, we operated on a voluntary basis with the support of contract administrative, research and communications services. The fact we have begun to evolve and grow is indicative that we envision significant growth in the sector in the coming years and my appointment is part of that. We made a short submission to the committee in advance of today's proceedings that gave a brief overview of our organisation's focus and a basic sense of how we believe district energy can aid the decarbonisation of the Irish heat sector. We intend our opening statement to add to our submission and we look forward to engaging with the committee and expanding on both this morning.

By way of background, IRDEA was founded in 2018.

Our key purpose is to promote the development of low-carbon district energy in Ireland. I emphasise the low-carbon aspect because that is certainly an area of priority for us. This includes district heating and cooling, albeit that the greater focus at present is on the heating side. We are the only association in Ireland dedicated to supporting and representing the interests of the district energy industry and sector. Our stated mission is to see district heating grow to account for at least 30% of heat demand in Ireland by 2050. We are a membership-based organisation, with core funding supplied primarily through annual fees paid by our members. As of this month, we have 27 members in our ranks. Among those members is a broad variety of specialism, expertise, commercial focus and size. Our members range from locally focused energy co-operatives, local authorities, academic institutions and consultancies to large-scale utilities and multinationals at the other end of the spectrum. There is a really broad mix. As such, we span the value chain and project life-cycle of district energy projects in Ireland. many of our members have experience and interests in different jurisdictions across Europe and further afield. We believe the depth of expertise in our ranks is one of our greatest assets. We like to use that as much as we can to deepen understanding and learning about the sector as it evolves and grows.

I will pass over to Dr. Connolly, who will give the committee a bit more of an introduction to district energy.