Mr. Seán McCabe:

Yes. I am sure there would be savings but I would go further and ask committee members to imagine the savings that would be achieved from the bulk purchasing of retrofits.

Imagine what that could do in terms of creating jobs as well. If we were to divide up the procurement of retrofits by county we could have a retrofitting co-operative in every county, which would allow for bulk purchase and for homeowners to pay back based on their savings. Insofar as possible, the effort should be to start with social housing. However, I caution that because of the use of HAP we have to be careful of unintended consequences. Once we start retrofitting houses, there is a risk that the value of that property goes up in rental value, which could result in tenants being moved in favour of higher paying tenants.