Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Mr. Byrne on his appointment. I am sure we will engage with him again on the new statement of strategy for 2021 to 2025. He spoke about increased ambition. We are in a circumstance where we were looking at the recovery and resilience facilities that are coming from Europe, the State being able to take loans and a suspension of the fiscal rules that exist. In terms of capacity, and if money was no object, how could we increase our ambition above 500,000 B2-rated homes in the next decade? What could we do in that regard by increasing ambition on the number of B2s, the number of deep retrofits, as opposed to other retrofits, and scaling up on public buildings, including schools, as has been mentioned? We have 90 public buildings but what would happen if we were to look at the large-scale retrofitting of other public buildings? I know there are other capacity issues besides funding. I am hoping to drill down to discover what are the other capacity issues, besides funding.

Will SEAI be looking at the issues of retrofitting and embodied energy? Embodied energy is often not addressed in buildings. That is something that needs to be added alongside retrofitting because sometimes buildings are demolished and replaced with more sustainable buildings when the benefits will not accrue for 100 years. Will SEAI look at that? Is it engaging with the national development plan and local development plans to look at retrofitting and embodied energy? Where is the idea of new sustainable capital infrastructure being looked at? That applies especially under sustainable development goal, SDG, 11 which applies to sustainable communities. I would not mind hearing about how SDGs in general are being incorporated into the new strategic vision of SEAI.

Is research on energy storage a part of the innovation at which SEAI is looking? We have heard a lot about carbon capture but I am interested in research on renewable energy storage issues.

I would query the language that Mr. Byrne about a "split incentive". I am concerned about that because it is being used a lot by landlords who are asking what is in it for them when what is not in it for them is more relevant. If we increase the acceptable energy standards for rental accommodation, does that create an incentive for landlords? At the moment, there is a narrative that landlords are asking why they should do it when only their renters benefit.

Could there be a better, more positive use of environmental and social impact assessments in the sustainable energy sector? Energy charter renegotiations are taking place this spring. We know that RWE has launched a case against the Dutch Government for its plan to shift to renewable energy. France is asking for the legal, institutional and budgetary modalities of withdrawal from the energy charter to be looked at. Is that an issue that Mr. Byrne is following or tracking? Does he have thoughts on the matter? As well as supply and demand, we also need some of the old models to get out of the way. Does Mr. Byrne have any thoughts on that?