Professor Brian Vad Mathiesen:

I thank the Deputy for the question. There is a competence build-out that needs to take place. I am pretty sure that Dr. Connolly can also elaborate on this. One of the things we did in the 1980s when we wanted to exploit this waste heat potential was to have a governmental initiative. It was kind of like a travel team that went around to help different communities and regions in Denmark to engage in this process of heat planning. That is one thing that can be done. It would involve a central competence. I do not know if it would mean travelling today, but that is what they did in the 1980s.

Another thing would be to highlight the possibility, if there is willingness in the Parliament, to build legislation that enables the local community. Members could try to replicate what we have been trying to do for the past decade or more in Europe, namely, to highlight that there is big potential here and enable this knowledge to hit the local community. In Europe we have knowledge of the potential for district heating down to the square kilometre, including in Ireland. Members can have a look at our heat roadmap on the EU website. They can even find their own village there. We also have some reports showing what the processes could be if states want to engage in developing a heat planning process whereby they decide they want individual heating in one area and district heating in another.

Central government can do a lot. It can also create targets where each region would have to develop a plan and identify the technical potential. This would, in the process, build in competencies in the communities as they would need to become knowledgeable about the heating technology and what it could do for them. There are a number of actions that can be taken. The informative process can be started long before starting to redesign the regulatory framework to be built more on trust.

I hope that answered the question.