Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the chairman designate for being willing to take on this task. Few could be better qualified than he is, and in his opening remarks Mr. Byrne displays a real passion for the job. I am delighted to learn that Mr. Byrne is assembling a new team and a new strategy. The scale of the challenge is vastly greater than those in which the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland has been involved to date. I believe that the SEAI has done outstanding work in evaluating approaches and there is very good experience there. The real challenge now is in scaling that up. I am interested to know what role Mr. Byrne envisages the SEAI taking in scaling up the activity. Will the SEAI be leading what Europe now calls a "retrofit wave", or has that yet been worked out as to how the elements of a strategy that involves finance, motivation, getting boots on the ground in local communities and adopting area-based approaches instead of individual approaches? How far has the strategy developed on that?

My second question is on the extent to which Mr. Byrne believes the public sector is leading by example in the area of sustainable energy. The sector reports regularly on its energy efficiency but the extent to which public bodies are taking it seriously or are in a position to deliver change seems to me to be very variable.

On the SEAI remit, the Act includes the promotion of renewables; research, development and demonstration; tackling pollution; and the co-ordination of the production, supply and use of energy. It appears to me that the actual remit has been much narrower than the scope outlined in the founding Act. Is it a part of Mr. Byrne's strategy to take on some of those wider roles such as co-ordination of research and development in the context of the need to see the emergence of hydrogen and other potential replacement fuels? How far does Mr. Byrne see his role reaching in co-ordinating that sort of work, which I believe will be crucial to achieving our goals in the coming years, if not in the immediate year or two ahead?