Ciarán Ahern (Dublin South West, Labour)
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147. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the total volume of natural gas used in Ireland in each year since 2016, in tabular form; to provide a breakdown of the volume used for electricity generation, household and business use; the projected volume requirement for each of the next five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10931/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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Gas Networks Ireland is a statutory public body under the aegis of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. It owns, operates, develops and maintains the natural gas network in Ireland.

Gas Networks Ireland has provided the following data table which includes:

• Historical gas demand by sector to 2024 inclusive.
• Forecast gas demand by sector for 2025 to 2029 inclusive. The forecast demand is based on the Best Estimate scenario of the Network Development Plan (NDP) 2024, which is due to be published imminently by the CRU for public consultation.
• ‘Business Use’ includes both industrial and commercial gas customers connected to both the transmission and distribution gas networks.
• Transport represents compressed natural gas (CNG) demand for heavy goods vehicles (HGVs).
• All values shown in the table are in GWh per year.
• The Climate Action Plan 2024 sets KPIs for renewable gases for the Built Environment and Industrial Heating sectors totally 3.2 TWh/yr by 2030, which correspond to the Business Use and Household sectors in the table below. By 2029, the NDP 2024 Best Estimate scenario forecasts biomethane supply of 2.8 TWh/yr, which is expected to directly displace natural gas demand in these sectors.”

  Gas Demand (GWh/yr)	Electricity Generation	Business Use	Household	Transport	Total ROI Demand
  2016	30,768	15,795	7,260	-	53,823
  2017	31,167	15,976	7,179	0	54,321
  2018	32,325	16,665	7,790	1	56,781
  2019	33,077	17,285	7,626	5	57,993
  2020	33,478	16,802	7,606	13	57,899
  2021	30,908	16,666	7,673	23	55,270
  2022	34,019	15,600	6,794	22	56,435
  2023	31,476	14,882	5,994	25	52,377
  2024	31,421	15,936	6,190	42	53,589
  2025	25,205	16,182	6,624	54	48,065
  2026	33,714	16,772	6,528	89	57,103
  2027	29,737	17,105	6,360	146	53,348
  2028	30,144	17,257	6,148	222	53,771
  2029	28,614	17,224	5,873	280	51,990