Mr. Jim Gannon:

I will reply to the Chairman's question first. With regard to the 100 homes and our deep retrofit pilot scheme - as opposed to the more commoditised schemes under which we have, over the past few years, decarbonised the offering and upped the performance level required in tens of thousands of homes annually - this will build an evidence base for policy decision-making. We are establishing the level of performance required in the housing stock by 2050 to meet our carbon goals and then we are looking at the different home types within that - be they apartments, rural cottages or semi-detached houses in Dublin - and asking which technology solution gives the best return on investment for either the Exchequer or the individual, whether the supply chain is robust enough to deliver that solution, what an individual will think about the value of that and whether he or she can finance it. We are interacting with the European Investment Bank and high-street banks to establish how we get finance to individuals if not through a grant or tax incentive scheme. We need to do a small number of tests and to go deeper for that. That is why the numbers appear low for the scheme but it is targeted.

On Deputy Stanley's queries, it is inevitable that we will see an electrification of heating and transport in people's homes in particular. The cost curves of technologies are helping that to happen. Solar PV costs have reduced by 85% in the past five years while the cost of electric vehicles, although incentivised, is narrowing and will continue to do so. What is telling in that industry is that the manufacturers are sending the same signals as governments regarding the fact that they will stop making diesel and petrol engine cars over time. They will lead the consumer because we are all consumers and we are convinced sometimes that a mobile phone is worth $1,000 because we are told that is the case. If the products we are offered move in the direction of electric vehicles, we will buy them.

In addition to this cost curve and consumer offering, the EU brought out a clean energy package prior to Christmas 2016 which articulated three principles, namely: people should have a right to generate electricity in their home; a right to export; and a right to a market price. It is not clear how that will come about down the line but it is coming. Part of the tests we will run when we satisfy the request from the Department to run a solar PV grant scheme for homes will examine that. For example, if a human was to receive a payment from the grid or have an electric vehicle in their home or a battery in their home how that would that work? Our focus will be on having people deal with their homes first before turning them into a business. They should examine their consumption and how to improve that. That will be knitted into our general programme. We will also work with companies such as the ESB to ensure that transformers on estates will be able to deal with that demand and to research the cost of that because the electricity system will be used in a way that it has not been previously. We need to make sure the balance of costs, if we give individuals this opportunity, is appropriate and does not increase prices too much.

I will now deal with the cost of electricity, large-scale renewables and auction systems internationally. We currently have a feed-in tariff system. The auction systems force private sector companies to bid against one another in a competitive process to provide a renewable electricity service. The premium Ireland should have to pay for that should continue to decrease for the consumer such that the loading on to the consumer will discontinue. However, that will take time to catch on. Ireland is a costly country in which to do business. Our licensing and consenting schemes are complex and there is uncertainty about timelines, particularly in the offshore sphere. The work being done by the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and the Department under whose aegis we sit is, therefore, important and timely. There is increasing interest in projects off the eastern and western coasts on the part of not only technology developers but of finance houses that do not generally care where they put their money to work. It is important that the opportunity is recognised in Ireland and that we leverage from that.

Switching rates comes under the remit of the CRU. Its officials are doing work with the PRICE Lab on that and how to make it easy and clear for people to switch. We are supporting them in that work through our behavioural economics unit and will continue to do so.