Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy O'Sullivan. I was very much involved with the whole range of community energy action agencies that were delivering a lot of those community schemes. I have seen them in action over the years and they did really good work. They came with a really good ethos and that community element was really important in getting things over the line. As the Deputy indicated, in last year's tendering process, some of them did not get contracts for additional work but that is not to say that they will not have an ongoing role. I would argue that this connects into the community energy agencies. My main adviser in the Department is a man named Paul Kenny who previously worked with Tipperary Energy Agency. That agency is a leading example of a local authority-related community organisation that was involved in this whole process. Both the independent community-based organisations and community energy bodies such as Codema in Dublin, which were more numerous previously, have a role, particularly in upskilling local authority staff to give them the capability to deliver social housing. There is a variety of groups involved. These is no closed door with regard to engagement with a variety of different community organisations, not-for-profit organisations or local authority organisations. They can and will have a very significant role in what comes next.

I will take the skills issue Deputy Devlin mentioned first. As I said, before Covid, the biggest constraint was the number of people who could work. Last year changed everything. As we come back out of lockdown, there are various big projects which will require great numbers of construction workers. I refer to the housing crisis. This Government has three key tasks to complete: to reform the health system, to deliver housing and to lead on climate action. In our Cabinet meeting today, the Taoiseach reiterated that again and again. That is our key focus. Housing will require a lot of construction workers. We really need to scale it up. If I may put my transport hat on, BusConnects, MetroLink and rail projects in Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick will all require great numbers of construction workers, as will the retrofitting programme.

The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has started work in this area. There was an additional €8 million for courses related to retrofitting this year and four new retrofitting centres of excellence are to open shortly. It is starting but it needs to scale up. That is also part of this. One of the advantages of the carbon fund being hypothecated is that we know we can tell industry that there is several billion euro a year available before we even access other funds or funding mechanisms. We know this industry will be running for the next 30 years. I advise any young man or woman who is doing the leaving certificate and who has not finished applying to the Central Application Office to think about that. This is a 30-year career which is really satisfying and in which one does highly-skilled and well-paid work which can be delivered reasonably quickly. One can fix someone's home and move on to the next one. There is a guarantee of good pay. This is not a bad industry to get into. That is key. I am sorry. I have forgotten the question Deputy Devlin asked about district heating. Could he ask it again? I took a note of it but I do not recall the nature of the question.