Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 17:

In page 5, line 34, to delete "services" and substitute "services affecting other forms of home heating".

The legislation, as it stands, reads:

'market in energy' includes a market in respect of—

(a) the generation, supply, transmission, distribution and trading, including the export or import, of electricity, including electricity generated from renewable sources,

(b) the storage, supply, transmission, distribution and trading, including the export and import, of natural gas,

(c) energy efficiency services.

There is no specific reference to "home heating" or the heating of the structures of buildings and such a reference should be included.

We had a debate this morning on whether this is a regulatory or an energy Bill. It could be very helpful if specific reference were made to "home heating" simply because the largest single saving that can be made in the use of energy, particularly imported oil, is in the area of home heating. Without a doubt, this also applies to gas. Ireland has some gas supplies including a resource that is expected to last 15 years. I hope we will ultimately avail of it and that we will be able to turn on the tap.

We should afford to "home heating" the recognition it deserves. There is a plethora of areas of energy provision in addition to home heating, but in no other area can greater efficiency, greater import substitution and a greater reduction in the cost to the consumer be achieved. The same applies to heating in the commercial sector. The amendments under discussion therefore deserve recognition and I ask that the Minister of State be sufficiently good, warm-hearted, energetic and conscious of conservation to take them on board.

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