Dr. Brian Motherway:

Yes. Obviously, there are basic standards such as tax compliance and insurance, but we also set codes of practice for a particular intervention, be it a boiler or an insulation upgrade. We inspect a random sample of homes and ask builders to go back to homes if they have not met the standards set and so on. The good builders welcome this because it can become a badge of quality and so on. The same applies to homeowners. If they work via our schemes, there is not just a financial incentive but also a quality environment. It takes time to build this culture throughout the sector, but it is the future.

We work with every single Department on our programmes. We work with the Department of Education and Skills in improving schools. We work with the Department of Social Protection on the issue of fuel poverty. We work with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine on the issues of energy efficiency and farms and so on. We have good informal relations with everybody. We have close working relationships with our sister agencies such as the EPA and Teagasc and we are in the same building as a few of the enterprise agencies. We sit on the relevant committees also. Mr. Kennedy sits on a couple of the UN related committees with our colleagues in the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. We use the cross-cutting structures available such as the Cabinet sub-committees and the various working groups. We find the inter-agency structures very important. It is important to come out of silos and do things differently. For example, we are working on changing the way public procurement works to improve energy efficiency in the public sector. By definition, this must involve not just the SEAI but also the OPW, the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and so on. The more of this we can do, the better. In a country the size of Ireland, much of this can be done at a relatively informal level. That is important.