Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Bill is substantially uncontroversial in its content. One could argue that the Bill is overdue and necessary housekeeping in terms of public infrastructure. Like most Deputies I have heard, I have no difficulty with the Bill and would be surprised if there were any real opposition to its content. That said, this is an opportunity to have a wider debate on wider related issues. The discussion so far has predominantly been about them.

In the few minutes available to me, I wish to raise a concern with the Minister of State that he might take on board with his Government colleagues when considering the future direction of travel, particularly in the context of there being 600,000 or 700,000 homes – largely, but not exclusively, across rural Ireland – for which home heating through the gas network is not an option. Those homes are substantially heated by oil-fired burners. Most, if not all, of them want to play their part in the collective journey we are on as a nation in an effort to reduce our carbon footprint and play our part in the climate change agenda, in particular the appropriate efforts to decarbonise home heating.

In many respects, the Government’s approach to date to the issue of home heating appears to have been the promotion of the optimum solution exclusively. Electrification is the basket in which we have placed all of our eggs.

That is an error of judgment and one which should be revisited for a number of reasons because it is impractical, particularly for many rural homes for whom the cost of a deep retrofit heat pump solution is prohibitive. It is also the wrong direction of travel because in being so prescriptive, there is a danger that we lose a lot of the goodwill people have in those situations towards a general commitment to decarbonising their home heating.

There are alternatives to electrification, one of which is hydrogenated vegetable oil, HVO. It is the Minister's view that HVO is of limited supply. If we send signals to the marketplace that we want more HVO, then we can commence two steps in respect of home heating. One, initially, would be a commitment to blending HVO with kerosene. There is capacity within the industry to retrofit existing oil boilers for a modest sum - under €1,000 would enable existing boilers to run on HVO completely or on blended fuel. In my constituency, there is Firebird in Baile Mhic Íre, and there are other manufacturers such as Grant in the midlands, which manufactures new boilers that are HVO compatible. If we send a signal to the marketplace that we want more HVO, the market will respond in terms of the volume of supply available. If you look at somebody in rural Ireland who does not have the option of a Gas Networks Ireland connection and whose heating system at the moment is an oil-fired system, if that system goes belly up and the direction of travel is to prohibit the replacement of new oil burners, at short notice, they are faced with no heating. In order to procure a contractor to carry out the deep retrofit, the heat pump solution advocated as the alternative by the Government is at best several months, not to mention the costs involved. Whereas, for a couple of hundred euro, you can modify your existing boiler or for a couple of thousand euro buy a new boiler that is HVO compatible. That HVO will decarbonise existing heating solutions by up to 80% - some say closer to 90%. The danger is that the optimum solution the Government advocates runs the risk of missing its targets substantially and of losing the goodwill of a cohort of people for whom there are no practical alternative solutions.

Electricity does not necessarily become available in a decarbonised way. We import electricity on the interconnectors; some of it is nuclear-powered electricity. Some have an objection to that; I do not. There should be a mix of options available. At the heart of the mix of options should be the requirement to decarbonise. HVO is a viable alternative. It supports rural communities in particular. It is an affordable option and there are employment opportunities in that sector. The Government should revisit its current approach to the heating carbonisation in that context.

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