Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We need to ensure increased access to these schemes and reduced waiting times. That is very important. A new residential retrofit loan guarantee scheme will be established to facilitate the provision of low-cost loans for residential retrofit projects. In response to energy price increases, there is an energy efficiency national fund of €160 million. That fund will be paid into and used to improve access to these residential retrofit projects for low-income households and households living at risk of poverty. The funding will be put in place to try to reduce the waiting time, on which I agree with the Deputy. We all receive calls in our offices from people who are trying to get their homes insulated and are waiting on somebody to come out to assess them. This funding will be part of that. We are under pressure to reduce our emissions at every level and if it is a resourcing issue, this will be part of whatever needs to be done. The funding will go towards ramping up access.