Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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219. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if hydrotreated vegetable oil will be available under our clean energy transition for the heating of homes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42497/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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Hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) is a bioliquid which can be used as a renewable energy source and which, in a transport context, is classified as a biofuel. HVO is currently available for consumers to purchase for use for both transport and heating. The Climate Action Plan includes a range of measures to address the use of fossil fuels in heating systems in buildings; with the National Heat Study, published by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, containing the detailed analysis that is informing the development of options to decarbonise the heating and cooling sectors in the period to 2050.

The Heat Study considered a number of potential decarbonisation options for a wide range of dwellings and business premises. These included the use of liquid biofuels such as HVO, solid biomass, biogases, as well as heat pumps and district heating networks. The recommendation of the Heat Study is that heat pumps are the optimal decarbonisation path for heating systems, with district heating also being an option that can be widely deployed. However, the Heat Study also recognised the potential role for sustainable bioenergy for buildings that require alternative routes to decarbonisation, and that is being considered as part of a suite of measures to decarbonise heat.

The Programme for Government 2025 commits to targeting older homes still using oil to switch to renewable heating systems and to consider the use of sustainable biofuels to reduce emissions from existing home boilers where deep retrofits are not possible in the short term. These commitments are framing the work underway to finalise a Heat Policy Statement and prepare a Roadmap to Phase Out Fossil Fuel heating systems, which will jointly set out Ireland's overarching approach to decarbonising the heat sector.

My Department is working on the introduction of a Renewable Heat Obligation (RHO) for the heat sector. Under current proposals, the RHO will obligate suppliers of all fossil fuels used for heating purposes to ensure a proportion of the energy they supply is renewable. As such, all renewable fuels, including bioliquids used for heat that satisfy the sustainability criteria of the Renewable Energy Directive, will be considered eligible for certification under the scheme. Government recently approved the RHO Heads of Bill, and drafting of the legislation will commence shortly.