Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming. It has been a lengthy meeting and their answers have been very detailed and excellent.

That is much appreciated. I am a Kerry Deputy and many of my constituents benefit from the better energy home scheme, which is operated out of Cahirciveen and is very important to the area.

I live in a coastal area and Ireland is an island nation surrounded by waves which can be ferocious at times. Given that Scotland has companies such as Pelamis Wave Power, is there more potential for us in the future? I know the technology is ever evolving and developing, but do the witnesses feel we could be doing more than we are doing on that front?

I agree with what has been said about the stoves. I built a house five years ago with an open fireplace. I installed a stove 18 months ago and the difference is phenomenal. The savings for the amount of solid fuel used for a stove compared with an open fire are immense - I would say it is 80:20. Could SEAI make some kind of effort in that regard?

Many people have benefited from home-insulation grants for attics and walls. However, unless they qualify for the housing aid for older people schemes that the local authorities offer, they cannot get grants to upgrade their windows, as far as I am aware. I have been in homes with single-glazed windows that are years old; the house is insulated to the maximum but the windows are single-glazed windows and people simply cannot afford to upgrade. That might be the next step SEAI could consider. It certainly would be a major boost to the window manufacturing and installation industry here and would support jobs. It would definitely make sense from an insulation point of view. Next to the roof, the windows and doors are the areas of highest energy loss - although the walls may be similar. However, if they are insulated well, it is natural that the heat would escape through the windows. Perhaps that could be looked at.

A person involved in the renewable energy sector asked me about biomass heating systems. I ask the witnesses to elaborate on potential grant aid for that in the future.

I understand the witnesses are aware of technology developed by the Kerry-based company, Ultimate Cell. This is technology that reduces fuel consumption in mechanised vehicles. Originally for regular cars, I now understand the company has developed the technology to apply it to HGVs and buses. This is a very exciting development. I have one of those devices in my diesel-powered car and I have noticed savings of approximately 10%. If we could apply that to our national public transport fleet and make it readily available for people to apply to their own vehicles, we could make enormous savings in fuel importation which is a massive area of expenditure for the country. Do the witnesses see potential in this and would they be willing to pursue it further?