Oil and gas boilers are to be banned from being installed in both new and existing homes under Government plans to move away from fossil fuels.
The ban would apply to newly built homes from next year and to installations in existing houses possibly from as early as 2025.
The plan would also involved retrofitting grants and the rapid development of 'district heating systems'.
Environment Correspondent with the Irish Independent Caroline O'Doherty says they have the potential to heat many homes across the country.
"For example, the Poolbeg Incinerator it's incinerating a lot of our rubbish. It generates electricity for homes, but it also generates a huge amount of heat, and that heat just goes into Dublin Bay, into the water or into the air.
"The idea was when that opened that all that heat would go into pipes under the Liffey, and heat 50,000 homes - now they think it has the potential to heat 80,000 homes."
