Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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282. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of heat pumps that have been installed on an annual basis from 2015 to 2022 in new homes. [10885/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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All new dwellings constructed under Housing for All are Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB).

While my Department do not collate the data requested in the Question, Central Statistics Office (CSO) data provides an analysis of the main heating fuel for new dwellings in its Domestic Building Energy Ratings dataset, details of which can be accessed at www.cso.ie/en/statistics/energy/domesticbuildingenergyratings/. Most heating systems powered by electricity in new dwellings are renewable energy heat pumps.

Based on the CSO analysis, 86% of all new dwellings since 2020 installed heating systems which use electricity with the percentage growing each quarter. This equates to 36,195 dwellings.

In the period 2015 to 2019, 49% of all new dwellings installed heating systems which use electricity. This equated to 24,500 dwellings.

Part L of the Building Regulations is performance based and technology neutral. Fossil fuel boilers are phased out through the Building Regulations by advancing regulatory performance requirements so that it is no longer practical to install fossil fuel boilers as the primary heating system in new dwellings.

As a result of an ongoing programme of improvement of the performance requirements of Building Regulations, solid fossil fuel and oil boilers are effectively banned from being installed as the primary heating source in new dwellings and heat pumps are now the main heating system in most new dwellings.