Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Ms O'Neill. The purpose of this engagement is to learn about her plans for the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI. Ms O'Neill outlined her personal views and vast experience. She also indicated that she is a member of two boards. Is there a conflict between her role as a non-executive director of an airline and her role as chairperson of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland?

I will ask a question I put to every other chairperson-designate who comes before the joint committee. Is Ms O'Neill or has she ever been a member of a political party?

I note Ms O'Neill's comments on what has been achieved since 1990 and the changes that have taken place in the way we view sustainable energy and the world as a whole. She was previously a member of the board of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland. Some 300,000 grants have been provided under the warmer homes scheme. How does Ms O'Neill envisage the scheme evolving? The scheme should be used for local authority housing stock because of the amount of money being spent to try to heat these homes, most of which were built at a time when less attention was paid to energy efficiency. Having seen the difference the scheme makes in heating homes, I ask that it be expanded to ensure local authority homes are upgraded to the highest possible level. Some of the residents in question have the lowest incomes and highest energy bills in the State.

While much has been achieved in improving insulation for 300,000 homes, a major effort is needed to improve energy efficiency for businesses. Significant amounts of energy are wasted trying to heat office buildings constructed in the 1960s and 1970s. Some of the newer buildings are highly energy efficient which creates greater business efficiency.

What are Ms O'Neill's opinions on wind power, solar power and biomass? Is the number of wind farms being built and entering the grid sustainable?

The first application granted by a local authority for a solar farm was recently approved in Macroom, County Cork. I understand a solar farm has been built in County Down and another one has gone through the planning process. How does Ms O'Neill envisage solar power developing in Ireland? Does she envisage a future for biomass in the renewable sector?