Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Can people apply today through the SEAI website?

They will apply to the one-stop shops. It might be useful to outline the journey. We are talking about a very significant level of retrofit in someone's home. To all intents and purposes, it would be like building an extension. It is not a question of someone making an application on a Monday, which I know the Deputy is not suggesting, and somebody coming in the following day. Significant work is to be done. The first piece of work is talking to the homeowner. There is then a technical assessment, the home energy assessment, which is a specific technical report on the home. On the basis of that, the one-stop shop will sit down again with the homeowner to outline the options available and the homeowner will decide on them. The work is then programmed in. While a homeowner might make a phone call and have an initial consultation with a one-stop shop today, it could be six weeks before works are started on the ground.