Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for bringing forward this Bill. I understand it is a technical Bill that transfers all functions for the national gas infrastructure from Ervia to the new publicly owned Gas Networks Ireland. With the transfer of functions, there will be some changes, specifically the inclusion of the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform as minority stakeholders with 5% of the shares each, while the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage will maintain 90% of the shares. This is to be welcomed but my sense is that it should go further simply because of the significant impact of burning gas on our climate objectives. I believe it is right that the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications should have a greater stake than the 5% granted in the Bill. The Minister of State, in his closing remarks or in writing later, might clarify why the decision was for 5% and not 10%, 20% or 30%. Is there a particular reason that the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications of the day, whoever he or she may be, will not have a stronger voice with respect to Gas Networks Ireland.

The Bill may be missing an opportunity to ensure that our national provider, Gas Networks Ireland, is aligned with the national climate objectives and our legally binding carbon budgets. In this Bill, we must ensure that the functions of Gas Networks Ireland are updated and aligned with the Government's decarbonisation objectives, specifically those functions of the company that relate to expanding the gas grid, providing new gas connections and increasing the demand for gas across industry and the commercial and residential sectors. Within the energy sector, the ability to meet our ambitious climate targets will be determined in part by the uptake of renewable energy and the retrofit of buildings. Ultimately, greenhouse gas emissions will decrease only if we can phase out the use of fossil fuels to power our lives.

Research on the sectoral carbon budgets conducted by University College Cork, UCC, in 2020 revealed that in order to meet our carbon budgets by 2040, significant reductions in gas demand are needed compared with 2020 levels. A 93% reduction is required in the power sector. An 85% reduction is required in the residential sector and a reduction of 67% is required in enterprise. Gas Networks Ireland's most recent five-year revenue proposal, which underwent a Commission for the Regulation of Utilities, CRU, consultation last month, outlines its plans which, if implemented, may not align with the Government's emissions reduction commitments and could potentially compete with the Government's initiatives, such as housing retrofits, the roll-out of heat pumps, district heating projects and the broader goal of reducing our reliance on fossil fuels. In the years 2016 to 2020, Gas Networks Ireland connected 50,000 new customers to the gas grid. Over the coming five years, Gas Networks Ireland forecasts that 17,000 new gas connections, including the connection of 14,000 existing houses, 600 new houses, 36 apartment blocks and 2,600 industrial and commercial units, will be required.

In its 2021 development plan, Gas Networks Ireland noted that the company was actively promoting natural gas systems to builders and developers for new housing. It is also targeting the 300,000 homes currently serviced by oil and seeking to switch them to gas. This is locking in the use of gas in homes, including new homes, right across Ireland for decades to come when we need to be phasing it out.

Gas Networks Ireland's plan is not blind to Government policy. In fact, it clearly recognises that the policy of Government is to electrify heat in domestic buildings. However, the plan asserts a position that decarbonising heat through continued connection to the gas grid is a better way. All of us in the House will rightly see that as the madness it is. For a company that is owned by the State to recognise and disregard Government policy is unacceptable.

Ireland's plans for the decarbonisation of the residential section are outlined in our climate action plan. They are hugely ambitious. By the end of the decade, we need 2.5 TWh of district heating, which will serve approximately 125,000 homes and 11,500 commercial and public sector connections. We need 0.7 TWh of heat from renewable gases. We need 45,000 existing dwellings to switch to using heat pumps for domestic heating by 2025 and 400,000 homes to switch by 2030. To deliver this, we need all arms of the State pulling together. We are all well aware of the benefits to our energy security and energy independence that will arise as our energy system moves away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy.

I am seeking clarification as to whether Gas Networks Ireland will be a public body and, therefore, a relevant body under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act. Until the introduction of this Bill, Ervia was specifically exempt from public body status. I would like Gas Networks Ireland to be a public body subject to the public sector climate action mandate and the provisions of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act.

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