Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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470. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the position regarding the opening of the second phase of the renewable heat support scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4004/19]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Support Scheme for Renewable Heat (SSRH) has been developed to financially support the adoption of renewable heating systems by commercial, industrial, agricultural, district heating and other non-domestic heat users not covered by the EU Emissions Trading System. Under Project Ireland 2040, the National Development Plan published earlier this year sets out an allocation of €300 million for the rollout of the scheme for the period 2018 to 2027.

The first phase of the scheme, an installation grant for heat pumps, opened for applications on 12 September 2018. This phase of the scheme will support ground, air and water source electric heat pump installations providing grant-aid of up to 30% of the installation cost. The first phase of the scheme was implemented under the State aid General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) and did not require prior approval from the European Commission.

The second phase of the scheme, an operational support for biomass boilers and anaerobic digestion heating systems, cannot be accommodated within the provisions of the GBER and, therefore, must follow the full State aid notification process. It is intended to open the second phase of the SSRH for applications early this year, subject to the State aid process. My Department is engaging with the European Commission in order to obtain this approval.

The Scheme Overview is available on my Department's website at the following link: .

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), as scheme administrator of the SSRH, is currently finalising the detailed Terms and Conditions for the operation support element of the scheme. In order to assist stakeholders, the SEAI has published a working draft of the Terms and Conditions for the scheme on their website. This can be found at: