Dr. Ciaran Byrne:

That question pertains to what we call the warmer homes scheme, which is the energy poverty scheme. The Deputy will appreciate that the scheme was very much buckled by Covid-19. We were stymied in being unable to go out to and get into homes because many of the homeowners on the scheme are vulnerable. The cycle time, from the time of the first application to completion, was 17.5 months. It was up to 24 months, again, because we had substantial closures of the building sector. Even when the commercial building sector opened up, the warmer homes scheme was somewhat delayed because we were going in to individuals homes who were vulnerable. The cycle time then is 17.5 months and we have built up a waiting list because of the Covid-19 period. As of the end of December 2021, there were 7,500 homes on that list. We have a target of 4,800 homes to complete on the scheme this year and we expect to get another 3,000 applications in on the scheme. We intend to bring the closing balance of the waiting list down and achieve, approximately, a 30% reduction on the waiting list in 2022 and, ultimately, it will be in 2023 that we intend to remove the waiting lists.