Mr. Martin Finucane:

Yes, just to address some of the questions on the energy perspective. The Chairman asked about energy efficiency. The Department operates its energy efficiency schemes through the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI. Currently, on average, 20,000 to 25,000 houses per annum are grant aided to increase energy efficiency. During the period 2009 to 2017, 210,000 homes received energy efficiency grants. The challenge we have in the future is that many of those homes have been retrofitted with certain measures, but we need to retrofit at a much deeper level which will require additional funding. The Department, and the Minister, have made significant cases to the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform in respect of the upcoming capital plan, and we expect to see significant funding made available in this area in the future.

We might also point out that regarding this year's budget, the overall capital budget for the SEAI was increased by approximately 50%, from about €100 million capital to €150 million capital, the significant portion of that being grant aids, not just for energy efficiency on homes but also in respect of commercial activity as well.

The Chairman asked specifically about public buildings. The SEAI works very closely with the public sector and with the Office of Public Works, OPW, in terms of both retrofitting the existing building stock across the public sector and also working with the OPW to ensure that the new fleet coming in, either built by the OPW or hired by the OPW for use by the public sector, meet significantly higher standards from an energy perspective than they would have previously. There is a good deal of action going on in respect of those two areas.

Several comments were made regarding subsidies for peat. There are three peat stations in Ireland, one of which no longer receives a subsidy from the public service obligation, PSO. The two remaining peat stations that do receive a subsidy are due to come out of support from the public service obligation in 2019. Therefore, they will not be receiving support for burning peat beyond that period. The likelihood is that they will increase. Currently, increasing amounts of biomass are being burned in one of the plants and the likelihood is that from a strategic perspective that will increase and probably extend to the other two, but that is a commercial issue for the companies themselves.