Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have a new question. Mr. Douglas touched on one part of it because I was going to ask about the community projects. I do not know to what extent the association engages with community projects and sustainable energy communities, which are beginning to engage. That is a positive measure. Do the witnesses have a comment on that and on how the association is engaging with those projects or is connected with them?

I have a question that follows up on the retrofitting piece. I believe retrofitting is one of the few remaining low-hanging fruits, if it were to be really scaled up and if we were to look at deep retrofitting. Linked to that is looking at embodied energy. In terms of our electricity, we are looking at it sector by sector. We are looking at energy and we are going to look at construction. One of the big things we are seeing now, certainly in the UK, is a focus on a very deep retrofitting of large-scale buildings and projects, whereby one might repurpose or add a storey or two to a building. One uses the skeletal structure and, in that way, the overall energy cost of a building, rather than tearing it down and building a new renewable building. The more energy efficient way in many cases is to adapt or change a building and build on the existing skeleton or sleeve, as I believe it is called. Will the witnesses comment on that? It is different from just retrofitting. It is about almost remaking buildings while keeping as much embodied energy as possible. That has been advanced a great deal in the UK and it will have to come into play more here when we start calculating emissions, not just in terms of future energy usage but also the energy cost of the construction process.

The other part I have a question on is the clean-up costs on stranded assets. I know the witnesses cannot speak about the specific, as the association has a suite of members. We have seen in other countries that some companies will stop functioning, some will reinvent themselves and some will amalgamate. However, there have been concerns in other countries about the clean-up costs of that transition. What mechanisms might be in place within the industry to ensure there is best practice in that context? I am concerned that the State could be left with the mopping up of old elephant infrastructure. Within that transition and within the witnesses' sector, we have seen a contradictory thing at European level where sometimes the same companies that are investing in renewable energy for electricity or whatever are also, at the same time, suing states in respect of old infrastructure that they own relating to fossil fuels. It is the same parent company wearing two different hats, one from the past and one for the future. That is a major concern with regard to the Energy Charter Treaty. The concern is the extent to which the industry's previous investments and the protection of those could act as a brake on us moving to the green new deal and the future we need on a regulatory base. Do the witnesses have comments on that? I believe that it will require a sea change from the industry.

My last question is an ambitious one. It is one I asked of the Minister with responsibility for the environment a year ago, and it is probably five to seven years away. We have the National Oil Reserves Agency. Can the witnesses envisage a point at which we will have a national electricity reserve agency, whereby we would have policies that would enable us to have a national electricity reserve in terms of that same infrastructure? I know we are not there yet, but is it something to which the witnesses could see pathway at national or European level?