Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Yes, it is targeted at that. That is critical. The message went out loud and clear yesterday that there is a whole range of supports available. There is the 100% grant, the 80% grant for smaller works and the grant of up to 50% for large-scale jobs. There was also mention of the Land Development Agency, LDA. The chair designate, Cormac O'Rourke, came into us recently. We had a really good session with the LDA and many of us left confident of the work it will do. It is a critical agency with regard to managing the land and pulling it together. The land aspect has always been key in making housing affordable.

I will move to planning and the urban regeneration and development fund, URDF. The Minister has visited many parts of the country to see the benefits that fund has brought about. Local authorities need to have the funding in place to develop a pipeline because it costs them money to design these projects so they are ready for when the funding grants are announced. I hope that local authorities have a small amount of funding to develop their plans so that, when funding is announced, they are shovel-ready and ready to go. I hope that is in place.

On energy efficiency and retrofitting, the planning exemption for solar panels is critical. We are coming into the sunny season now. There are megawatts of potential power up there in the sun. We could have panels on every school building, community building, farm building and church building out there to generate energy predominantly for on-site use, but with the ability to feed back into the grid. That work on microgeneration is due shortly. I have covered a lot. I do not know whether the Minister can answer some of those questions. I am conscious that he needs to go at 8 p.m.