Mr. Seán Armstrong:

The first question was on the €50,000 to retrofit a dwelling. We have carried out a cost optimal study on the retrofit of dwellings. It is a 2018 study; it is published on our website. The costs for typical dwellings were in the range of €21,000 to €39,000, depending on the dwelling type, its original condition and the works that needed to be done.

For local authority housing, we are seeing typical costs of approximately €30,000 to €35,000. That will depend on the condition of the house, the works that need to be done and the works that have already been done on the house.

With regard to supporting the retrofit of private homes, the concept of the midlands retrofit scheme is that, in terms of the economies of scale, the €20 million will create clusters of houses and it will be possible to align private sector housing with the social housing and create economies and clusters, thereby making it easier to retrofit those clusters of houses and create an economic stimulus. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, has responsibility for the private scheme and the Department has responsibility for the social housing scheme. The concept is that we would cluster those dwellings together.