Dr. Brian Motherway:

The Deputy has asked very interesting questions.

I will deal with the issue of retrofit. The number of grants is lower than was the case a couple of years ago. To a certain degree, we have run out of early adopters and run out of people who have savings or a willingness to take out a loan to put in their share of the money. I would not say the scheme has run out because we are still offering between 300 and 350 grants every week. That figure is lower than it was, but it is still quite substantial. We have done a couple of things. We have upped the level of activity and are putting more effort into the fuel poverty sector, in which people do not have to make a contribution. We have tried to find other ways to come at people, particularly as a community rather than as individuals. This year we are putting much more effort into encouraging people to come to us as a community of 100 homes or for community buildings such as the local GAA clubs grouping together and coming to us for retrofit funds. We are reaching new audiences in that way.

Second, there are economies of scale, which is quite powerful. We need to transition to a system of pay-as-you-save at the right pace. It is important to remember that no other country has successfully at a national level made the transition from grants to a pay-as-you-save system. The only country that is at the cliff edge is the United Kingdom and it is finding it very difficult to secure sufficient uptake now that it has made the transition to the green deal. It is very important that we make the change at the right pace and with the right kind of transition. Even though we do not know all of the details of the policy, if one speaks to the market actors, the contractors and so on, they know that Ireland is serious about retrofit and that we have created a lot of employment potential and business development opportunities. I have met the owners of many companies who have told me that they have reconfigured their small building businesses because they believe retrofit is the future of the market. We need to keep up the momentum.

I will ask my colleague to respond to the question on complete retrofitting and outline the roadmap to 2050 in terms of where we think retrofit can ultimately go.