Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will be sharing with Deputy Lahart. I thank our guests for their presentations because they are helpful. From our perspective, we fully appreciate that, if we are going to make a meaningful impact on our carbon emissions, we must deal with the heating sector and home heating in particular so what our guests have talked about is relevant.

My understanding is that much of the retrofit programme is concentrated between May and October. That has an impact on the skill sets of people who want to do this on a year-round basis. The activity is only in a relatively short period of time so people cannot concentrate on that work alone.

What is the long-term proposal that will come from the pilot deep retrofit programme? Will it become a full, national programme, or has the pilot project ended? Is the Department taking applications this year or has it come to an end?

Will the witnesses try to give us some indication as to what level of support will be in place for homeowners? This is the big issue. Mr. Manley talked about the average cost being approximately €50,000. Constituents glaze over when one talks about €50,000, €40,000 or €30,000. Many people I speak to are coming to the end of their mortgages, or are at the end of them, so it is an older home, their lives have changed and their kids are in college. There is not another pot with €30,000 to €50,000 there to spend on this kind of programme. It is not that people do not want to do it but I certainly get the sense that people, in general terms, cannot and will not be able to afford it.

When Mr. Manley talks about green finance, it is going to require significant backing of the State. Many people's creditworthiness has been challenged through the past ten years and, if the same rules apply to normal drawdown on finance or normal sourcing of loans, there will be many rejections. Could Mr. Manley talk to us a little bit about ideas the Department has about that? We are really trying to encourage the people who are in these homes to do the work and buy into the programme. That is why we must be helpful in guiding them early.