Mr. Dermot Byrne:

We have two principles when we work in east Africa. The first is that it is community-led, for example, the community-led total sanitation projects that we introduced into east Africa and which are now in widespread use. This means that when our people go into a village, they pull the community together and it becomes a community project rather than an NGO-imposed project. Out of that, leaders emerge, which is fantastic to watch and to see. The second principle is that we leave nobody behind. Once we are in a community, everybody is brought into it and everybody benefits from it, whatever the project is and whether it is latrines, potatoes or otherwise.

In terms of the SEAI and communities, we work very closely with communities. We now have up to 500 sustainable energy communities throughout the country and we support those communities very actively through grants, through helping them to develop skills, and through networking across communities so best practice is shared. I think what the Senator is referring to is the renewable energy supports scheme and getting communities involved in that. That is a critical part of engaging citizens and communities in our transition. We are in the process of appointing the trusted energy co-ordinator, so we are very conscious of that role and we will be working with communities to develop those skills and to make communities better able to engage with the process. It is very much on our radar and we are following that.