Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We can put these questions directly to representatives of the Department when they are available. Certainly in my view, there should be no fossil fuel-based heating systems in any new homes that are built. There is no point in us having a retrofitting programme if we are building homes that, ultimately, will have to be retrofitted a second time.

To return to the better energy homes scheme, given it is SEAI that is appearing before the committee, it is an incredibly popular scheme. The number of applicants in Dublin has increased from 177 to 400 a month. Will the authority be able to reach those targets? The timeline of waiting times for people to avail of the scheme has drifted a little, and now homes that previously had attic insulation are entitled to wraparound where previously they would have been excluded. SEAI has a lot on its plate. Has it identified the challenges relating to this? There is also a programme whereby local authorities are carrying out very similar work. It is often the case that SEAI's contractors will be working in one area while local authority contractors are working in another, and we might be better off marrying the two objectives in order that an entire road could be completed at once rather than having to wait for all the local authority houses to be done before moving on to the private homes, many of which are bought-out council houses.