Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses very much for the presentation and for the work that has gone into getting this scheme up and running. I would like to pursue the Chairman's question a bit further. What spread do we need in terms of the number of one-stop shops to be able to say that they have a nationwide launch and people can go to somewhere within a reasonable distance? Specifically, at the time of the announcement I recall that some national organisations like An Post and the credit unions were involved. Are national organisations of that nature pushing through this process, so that we can expect to see a fairly wide coverage? I fear people may be delaying while they wait for this. I would like to hear the views of the witnesses on the supply chain challenges and also how this industry will grow by year five and year ten, to give us an idea of what scale of industry we will see grow. It will give confidence to people to enter the industry if they see the speed with which it can grow.

When will we see the loan scheme? That will be key if it is to be linked to savings in energy bills. There has been a suggestion at the committee by Friends of the Earth that we should step back from the BER B2 threshold for the OSS and that we should reduce it so that we quickly get the more easily accessible energy savings in the midst of this crisis. I invite the witnesses to comment on that.