Dr. Rory O'Donnell:

The Deputy has touched on some critical issues. The report, as well as emphasising the role of key agencies on specific issues such as the role of the ESB in regard to electric vehicles and SEAI on energy efficiency, supports the view of SEAI that although retrofit appears to make good sense, in terms of payback for a household, there is no guarantee that is what will happen. There are a range of obstacles to this, some of which might be overcome through more collective approaches such as, for example, estimation of possible retrofit if carried out on a house by house basis, the cost of which would be higher than that of a group or collective scheme. In the long run, progress on these issues will depend on a high level of engagement. Ireland, as we know, has a vibrant community life although to a lesser extent in the area of energy than in many other areas such as culture and so on. A theme of the report, one which is emerging internationally, is the need to get beyond information campaigns to engaging households and communities more actively in ways that address the obstacles.

The Deputy asked about energy security. It is a matter for our end of year report, which includes the energy sector proper and the emissions trading large-scale energy sector. The figure in this regard will be included in our end of year report rather than in our interim report.