Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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79. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he is aware of the benefits of HVO biofuels in its use as a very low emission home-heating source; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9918/23]

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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118. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment further to Parliamentary Question No. 12 February 2021, his plans to provide grants for conversion to hydrotreated vegetable oil, from kerosene to enable the decarbonisation of old housing stock; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9647/23]

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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144. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the steps that are currently being taken to embrace hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) fuels by his Department. [9844/23]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 79, 118 and 144 together.

The Climate Action Plan 2023 includes a range of measures to address the use of fossil fuel in heating systems in buildings and the National Heat Study contains the detailed analysis that is informing the development of options, policies and measures to decarbonise the heating and cooling sectors to 2050. The Study considered a number of potential decarbonisation options for a wide range of dwelling and business types. This included the use of liquid biofuels such as HVO, solid biomass, biogases and other technologies such as heat pumps and district heating networks.

The recommendation of the Heat Study is that heat pumps are the optimal decarbonisation path for domestic heating systems, with district heating also being a competitive option that can be widely deployed. There are, therefore, no current plans to provide grants for conversion to hydrotreated vegetable oil from kerosene.

Liquid renewable fuels may be best used in transport systems that are more difficult to decarbonise and their use should be incentivised in the transport energy market. HGVs and the aviation sector have no alternative for sustainable fuel, unlike the domestic heating for which we can turn to other alternatives. Biofuels are a core transitional technology relied upon for the medium-term reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the road transport sector.

To facilitate the decarbonisation and overall energy use needs of our building stock, the Government has established a Heat and Built Environment Delivery Task force and will publish a new National Policy Statement on Heat to guide the Government’s overall response to the National Heat Study across all sectors.

The Programme for Government and Climate Action Plan set ambitious targets to retrofit the equivalent of 500,000 homes to a Building Energy Rating (BER) of B2/cost optimal level and the installation of 400,000 heat pumps in existing homes by end-2030. This represents approximately 30% of the housing stock and is among the most ambitious retrofit programmes worldwide. The budget of €8 billion to the end of the decade and annual allocations set out in the National Development Plan and National Retrofit Plan, underlines the Government’s commitment to achieving these targets.

A particularly important aspect of the Retrofit Plan was the launch, last year, of a new package of enhanced SEAI retrofit supports. Demand across the SEAI residential and community energy upgrade schemes (including Solar PV) was exceptionally high following the introduction of these measures. Over 50,000 applications were received in 2022 which is up 150% on 2021 levels and points to a robust pipeline of activity for 2023.

The Department is working with SEAI to build on this strong performance across the schemes. A target of 37,000 retrofits has been set for 2023, and a record €348 million Exchequer allocation for residential and community retrofit was announced as part of Budget 2023 to support the achievement of this target.

My Department has also established a District Heating Steering Group which will, by end March, make recommendations to Government on district heating matters such as; governance, regulatory framework; planning; and legislation.