Eoin Ó Broin
Question:1. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Taoiseach when he expects the project with the CSO to be complete to establish indicators for energy poverty. [3608/21]
View answerWednesday, 27 January 2021
Questions (1)
Written answers
A small group comprising the CSO, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland was formed in 2019 to discuss the development of indicators on energy poverty in Ireland. Traditionally energy poverty is analysed in the context of comparing expenditure on heating with disposable income using the CSO Household Budget Survey. The CSO agreed to develop a broader set of indicators that would incorporate the transition to a low carbon economy as well as affordability. Those indicators encompass a range of sources and topics, including Building Energy Ratings, environment indicators from the Census of Population, fossil fuels, road fuel use and distances travelled by car, and future data on electric vehicles. Further information on those sources and topics related to energy poverty, and the timetable for statistical outputs, is set out below.
Building Energy Ratings are an important determinant of the amount of heating required to keep a home comfortably warm. The CSO publishes statistics on BER ratings on a quarterly basis using data provided by SEAI. The CSO is undertaking a project to link the BER data with the Census of Population to examine the socio-economic situation of households with low energy ratings. Part of this work will be to examine how Census data could be used to make the BER data representative at the national level. Results from this work should be available by mid-2021.
The CSO published a new report in late 2020 entitled the Census of Population from an Environment Perspective. This report matched 2011 and 2016 Census data at household level and presented detailed tables on how the type of central heating fuel varied by socio-economic characteristics. The report showed that households were more likely to change from solid fuel central heating if there was a change in the occupants. The analysis was undertaken at both county and Dublin postal district level.
The transition to a low carbon economy involves changes in fuels used for transportation as well as fuels used for domestic heating. The CSO launched a new monthly release on Fuel Excise Clearances in mid-2020. This report showed that there has been a large change from petrol to diesel over the last decade and it has also shown the considerable reduction in road travel and related fuel consumption over the course of 2020. The CSO is working towards disaggregating road fuel statistics by county. The CSO published a new Fossil Fuel Subsidies 2000-2018 report in 2020 showing subsidies to various fossil fuels. The report showed that the average effective carbon rate per tonne of carbon dioxide emitted in 2018 was €257.93 for unleaded petrol compared with €183.92 for autodiesel and €24.58 for household heating fuels.
Another view of road fuel use can be provided by analysing National Car Test odometer readings. The CSO publishes annual aggregates in the Transport Omnibus report. The CSO Environment and Transport Divisions are working together to review the odometer data for 2000-2019 with a view to publishing a new statistical release, disaggregated by county and by the gender of the vehicle owner. The new statistical release should be published by mid-2021.
The CSO has been in discussions with the ESB to obtain information on the use of Street Charging Points data for electric vehicles. It is hoped that this data will show both the take-up by county and shed light on the rate of transition from diesel and petrol to electric and hybrid vehicles.
The CSO has focused on developing these new views of energy poverty and incorporating a geographical dimension into the analyses. Time series reports on the more traditional data sources such as the Household Budget Survey and the Survey of Income and Living Conditions are already available and will be reviewed and updated at a later stage.