Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I was shocked to hear the Minister proposing to ban gas and oil boilers by 2025. This is a huge mistake and I strongly urge the Government to review the facts and listen to the experts in this sector to solve the climate issue in the domestic heating sector. This is a knee-jerk reaction by the Minister that is damaging rural Ireland already. Firebird Heating Solutions, which is next door to me at home in Ballyvourney, Kingspan and Grant Engineering are members of OFTEC, the Oil Firing Technical Association. They are the experts and I ask the Minister to listen to them.

For 50 years, Ireland has been the envy of the world in the area of central heating. The industry employs tens of thousands of people throughout the country. This is something we should admire and be proud of. The Minister, with ill-informed decisions and ill-informed advisers, will replace Irish jobs and companies with non-Irish imports. This is a tragedy, especially when there is no need to do so. We all know the climate problem at hand. Currently, there are almost 700,000 liquid fuel boilers in operation in Ireland keeping homes and families warm in the winter. In general, these boilers are in rural homes which are generally poorly insulated. The home upgrade cost is large, even with the recently announced SEAI grants. In general, those living in these homes are the least well-off in our society and cannot afford the larger retrofit programme, even with the grants involved. The Government wants to retrofit 400,000 homes with heat pumps. This is not a valid option for the majority of the 700,000 homeowners who use liquid fuel. Ireland currently does not have the workforce to retrofit 400,000 homes. When did the Minister last look for a plumber to work in his house? He would have had a tough job to get plumbers to do 400,000 jobs for him.

This move to retrofit 400,000 homes is really a move to electricity. We are currently facing - if the Minister has not realised it - an electricity shortage this winter. Factories are planning production shutdowns due to electricity shortages. Older people are very nervous. How do we expect to fit on the electric grid 400,000 homes that are currently being run off-grid? Boilers run on 90 W motors for a short time during the day. Their use of electricity is minimal.

The Minister is also planning to put thousands of rural jobs in jeopardy again. The Government needs to look at all options. There is no silver bullet. Electricity is not the only show in town and I would like the Minister to realise that. For the past ten years, Firebird Heating Solutions, Kingspan, Grant Engineering and OFTEC have been doing engineering studies on the use of HVO, hydrotreated vegetable oil, in our boilers. They have successfully completed all trials and are ready to go. HVO is fossil fuel free. It delivers a 90% reduction in CO2 levels, potentially saving 32 million tonnes of CO2. Will the Minister wake up to issues such as this, if that is possible?

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