Ireland's heating sector represents around one-third of all primary energy but concerningly, it is an area where Ireland has performed poorly compared to other EU countries in terms of renewable energy share. At present, only the Netherlands has a lower share of renewable heat than Ireland with our current level of 6-7%, which is in stark contrast to EU leader, Sweden, which has a renewable share almost ten times higher at ~68%. Urgent action is vital in the heating sector and while Ireland's performance has been poor to date, there are number of proven technologies in other countries which can be used to kick start action in this area, especially for buildings which are: energy efficiency/retrofitting, heat pumps and district heating.

Buildings consume approximately 60% of all heat in Ireland and the Programme for Government aims to reduce this with a commitment to upgrade 500,000 homes by 2030 in a National Aggregated Model of Retrofitting as part of the EU renovation wave. To implement this, a radical national retrofit strategy is needed which should provide absolute clarity and a roadmap for retrofitting over the next 20 years and including financial incentives and skills programmes. An implementation body should be established, including appropriate governance, to oversee the deep retrofit of Ireland's domestic dwellings and public buildings to reduce energy demand and increase energy efficiency. In the longer term, two million housing units in Ireland will need to be retrofitted to achieve the energy performance levels required. International experience would suggest that retrofitting can reduce the heat demand across the building stock as a whole by 30-50%, so for the remaining 50% of demand, we will need a renewable heat supply.

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