LEGISLATIVE DELAYS are hampering the development of district heating schemes using geothermal energy drawn from hot reservoirs deep underground, it has been claimed.

Leo Crawford, chief executive of Irish company GT Energy, said its pilot project in Newcastle, Co Dublin, had found hot water at a temperature of 42.5 degrees after drilling a deep borehole there.

He has told the Oireachtas Committee on Climate Change that production of energy from such a source could heat 300,000 homes in the Dublin area, saving half a million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.

However he said the Department of Energy, Communications and Natural Resources – headed by Green Party Minister Eamon Ryan – had failed to produce a legislative framework for geothermal energy.

Such a framework, which would include revised planning regulations to permit drilling and laying a pipeline distribution network, was essential to give certainty to investors in this “unlimited” energy source. As a result, GT Energy was looking to potential developments in Britain and Northern Ireland and had already entered into a “strategic partnership” with Ballymena District Council to develop a project there.

Mr Crawford said it was “deeply frustrating” 12 months after making its initial submission to the department that no progress was being made in drafting legislation.

Committee chairman Seán Barrett (FG) complained that similar delays were being encountered on its proposed legislation on offshore energy. “We’re presenting opportunities and nobody is taking them.” Senator Joe O’Toole (Ind) said the committee was being “used as a fig-leaf by the Government to cover up lack of activity”, while Senator Fiona O’Malley (ex-PD) said it was “outrageous” that initiatives were ignored.

It was agreed that Mr Ryan and his officials would be invited to attend to be questioned on why there were such delays in legislation that could lead to the creation of “thousands of jobs”, as Mr Barrett said.