Mr. Ian Black:

Funding in respect of the energy retrofit sector is broken into two parts. One is to do with residential retrofit and the other with SME-related retrofit projects. We are working with the Department to assist it in designing a scheme for residential energy retrofit projects. Obviously, funding is only one part of a residential retrofit project. It is looking at a one-stop shop. Given the number of residential homes to be retrofitted, it will be a major undertaking. Those discussions are at the preliminary stage. It is more likely that something might happen next year rather than this year in respect of the residential energy retrofit scheme.

I believe some of the existing and future schemes will be available for the SME retrofit schemes. As the Senator can understand, because of Covid-19 and Brexit, SMEs have paused some of that investment in light of the fact that the priority is to conserve cash and, perhaps, survive. I expect, however, that investment by SMEs in those kinds of schemes will increase once the restrictions are lifted over time.