Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Is that agreed? This is an extra recommendation to the chapter on agriculture. We will wait for members to return.

In the meantime, we will move on to chapter 9, which relates to the built environment. There are four recommendations and a number of amendments. The first is No. 35, which states:

The Department of Communications, Climate Action and the Environment with the SEAI and the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government (DHPLG) should urgently carry out a needs assessment in order to determine the requirements for the delivery of the Government's target for retrofitting 45,000 homes per annum from 2021 and explore increasing it incrementally to 75,000 homes. This should include: a. Prioritising the categories of houses to be retrofitted with a focus on those with the lowest building energy rating (BER);

b. For all housing where the State is landlord, the DHPLG should set annual targets for each local authority to deliver deep retrofits of all of its public housing stock by 2030. The DHPLG should allocate necessary finances through the capital budget and explore finding support from the European Investment Bank (EIB);

c. Producing a plan as a priority by Q3 2019 to meet the training and educational requirements of an enlarged workforce needed to deliver the retrofitting programme (early action in this regard can maximise the associated employment potential and economic, social and environmental benefits (Sections 9.3. 9.7).

There are two amendments. One is a Fine Gael amendment that suggests adding, after "needs assessment", the words "guided by the amount of carbon abated per euro of investment". Do members wish to speak to the amendment?