Mr. Paul Kenny:

As a social enterprise, Tipperary Energy Agency provides services to people who come to us, or we answer tenders from various State bodies, including SEAI and other large public sector and semi-State organisations. Our energy agency operates in and from Tipperary but not just for Tipperary. With regard to expansion, we have made a submission to the other committee on supporting local energy agencies. Right now, the energy agency is in receipt of programme funding from the European Investment Bank. The programme, called ELENA, is funding technical assistance at local level, and this is allowing us to deliver many of the projects. Without it, the challenge would be that the cost of providing expert services in homes, schools and elsewhere would not necessarily be fundable in terms of energy savings because fossil fuel prices are quite low by comparison with the costs of upgrades. Without the support from the EIB, our scale of activity would be significantly lower. The funding is coming from the Government through SEAI for many of the things we do. They are very supportive of us but a lot of work is required to prepare the investments. Without a conscious effort at national level to provide support at local level, it will be challenging to achieve the societal shift because homeowners and contractors must be educated at a micro level. That is not fundable with a small portion of the funding through the current programmes. It is a challenge. There were 16 energy agencies in Ireland; two provide services to the public now. The low number is because of a lack of support. It is similar in other jurisdictions in Europe where there was not capacity support from state level for the local energy agencies.

The region of Upper Austria has approximately 1.4 million people. It is a little bigger than Munster. The regional energy agency there has achieved a 43% reduction in carbon emissions from buildings in a decade. We could do the same.