Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 15 June 2023
73. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the efforts he has made to ensure a reduction in carbon emissions in the residential sector by 40% as outlined in the Climate Action Plan 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28833/23]
View answerI ask the Minister the efforts he has made to ensure a reduction in carbon emissions in the residential sector by 40%, as outlined in the Climate Action Plan 2023, and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The Climate Action Plan 2023 sets out that emissions from the residential sector must reduce from 7 MtCO2eq in 2018, to 4 MtCO2eq in 2030. The Government plans to achieve this target primarily through the national retrofit plan and the roll-out of renewable heating. The national retrofit plan sets out our target to upgrade the equivalent of 500,000 homes to a building energy rating, BER, of B2 cost-optimal or carbon equivalent, and to install 400,000 heat pumps in existing homes. Good progress is being made. In 2021, we delivered more than 15,000 home energy upgrades. In 2022, it was more than 27,000. This year, the target is over 37,000 home energy upgrades. We are on track to meet this, with more than 18,000 homes upgraded to the end of May.
The Climate Action Plan 2023 also contains a target to deliver up to 2.7 TWh of district heating by 2030. My Department will shortly submit the first report of the district heating steering group to the Government. To accelerate and drive delivery in this key area, a heat and built environment delivery task force has been established. Future high-level actions to be taken in respect of these areas will be set out in subsequent climate action plans.
I thank the Minister for outlining progress. He referred to progress on retrofitting and heat pumps. We need to see more ambition and urgency if we are to meet the target of 500,000 homes retrofitted by 2030. We certainly support that, and we support strenuous efforts being made to reach the target. We are concerned that progress has not been swift enough in this area.
I will focus on the third action outlined in the Climate Action Plan 2023, to which the Minister referred at the end of his response. That is the measure on district heating and the commitment, as the Minister stated, to generate up to 2.7 TWh of district heating by 2030. We have seen really serious delays here. The Minister stated that he will shortly submit the first report of the district heating steering group to the Government. Will he say when exactly that will happen? I have been submitting parliamentary questions on this matter for some months. In November, the Minister cited December 2022 as the date for when the report would be finalised. In February, he stated that it would be brought before the Government by the end of March. In April and May, his response was that the report would be delivered shortly. These delays are distressing for the people who are facing issues with district heating schemes, a matter about which I will speak later, and who need answers. More importantly, they are holding back the progress on district heating that is necessary if we are to reduce residential emissions by 40%.
There is no holding back of progress on the part of our Department. I expect to bring the report before the Government and to publish it this month.
This month.
Yes. It is urgent that we proceed. I was very pleased to launch the first major scheme in Tallaght where excess heat from a data centre is being used to power a lot of public buildings, and that will extend to social housing. I had a very fruitful meeting last week regarding another potential development in Blanchardstown in west Dublin where, again, we will take waste heat from data centres. This has very extensive potential for heating social housing, hospitals and local authority and other offices. There is major potential in this.
Probably the most important project we need to advance is in the constituency the Deputy and I represent. The huge volume of waste heat that is currently being dumped into the River Liffey needs to be redirected very quickly to heat offices and other buildings along the quays. Pipelines are already being introduced to allow this to happen. That could be extended to Pearse Street and other city centre areas where we could make the switch. It is frustrating that the project in question has taken as long as it has, but it needs to be operational as an example of how we can do this. Nothing on my side is delaying that.
I am glad to hear the Minister commit to publishing the report on district heating in the next two weeks. That means it will be published this month, which is very welcome. We have heard really distressing stories from people in our constituency of Dublin Bay South who have been affected by overcharging in respect of district heating schemes. That has to be addressed. More broadly, I agree with the Minister about the immense potential for district heating in terms of emission reductions. The delays have been unconscionable. The Minister spoke about our constituency. The long delay in developing the district heating scheme to draw heat from the Poolbeg incinerator is extraordinary. It has supposedly been coming on stream for years now. I visited the incinerator and saw the infrastructure there that is ready to be expedited. What we are looking for is: the Commission for Regulation of Utilities review of district heating to the expedited; the capping of prices in district heating schemes of domestic rates; the publication of the steering group report that the Minister committed to; and, in particular, greater urgency in the rolling out of schemes. It was very welcome to see the development in Tallaght in April but we need to see that Poolbeg scheme come online very swiftly because it has been so long-awaited and could make such a significant difference to families and households across the community.
We need to be careful as there are very different types of heating systems which may be called district heating. Some are more like communal heating systems where people share a common heating source in an apartment building. The district heating system, the likes of the Poolbeg one, is where we are going. Excess heat from another neighbouring source, or which is generated outside the apartment building and shipped into that building, is where we need to go. I agree with the Deputy that it has been very frustrating that despite the provision of significant funding and finance to Dublin City Council to advance Poolbeg distribution scheme it has not developed as quickly as all of us wanted. As I understand, there was a meeting with Dublin City Council on this issue recently. The scheme is now ready to go to procurement. I told the council it should make sure that process is not so elongated and does not further delay what we need to see happen. I want to see that project and that heat being used by 2025 so that we start to meet our climate targets, lower people's bills, and turn waste into an opportunity. That is the beauty and brilliance of district heating, that it actually creates a circular economy, turns waste into wealth, and that is why we want to see it rolled out not just in Poolbeg but also across the country as fast as we can.
