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

I congratulate the Minister on his appointment. I really enjoyed my time in the Department. There are some fantastic people who are working with him. I wish him well.

The 500,000 retrofits at BER B2 is a very ambitious target. Considering the new climate target of 51% compared with what was in the climate action plan, does the Minister envisage having to step up activity very considerably by 2030?

I am sure the key performance indicators, KPIs, were inherited from my time in the Department. They need to be fairly radically changed in view of the climate plan. For example, they do not refer to B2 ratings but regard any home that is retrofitted as being good enough. In reality, only about a quarter of what is done is to the standard we need to achieve.

I am really interested in the idea of a retrofitting wave. I looked at the homes in Dublin, a matter about which I am obviously interested. The age of the houses is so crucial in the context of inadequacy. Some 25% are at the worst levels - almost six times - but among older houses the rate is more than 50%. There is a real case for identifying parts of the city - I am sure this is the case in other cities and large towns - where we need to get in and do every house in an area. How close are we to having that sort of area-based strategy where it would be possible to go in with a bundle of low-cost finance and advice? The Department is working on this. There is a real urgency and we should start with the older homes.

How important will the revenue from carbon pricing be in achieving this? It will progressively increase each year. I cannot remember the estimate, but it will probably be in the region of €8 billion or €9 billion over the coming decade. It will be really crucial to us achieving that. Is working ongoing on putting that on a statutory footing? People will want any money raised to be ploughed back into climate programmes and just transition.

Deputy Stanley is very keen on microgeneration and he put forward a Bill. The Department carried out a consultation on microgeneration recently and I think the Minister intends to bring in a microgeneration scheme in this year. Are we any closer to know what kind of price will be available for microgenerators? I know it will not be a bonanza because it is a marginal source of power but are we beginning to see the shape of what the microgeneration policy will be?