Dr. Ciaran Byrne:

I thank the Deputy for the question, which had two parts. One is that there is a shortage in the retrofit construction sector generally and separate from that there is the issue of the BER assessor community.

We have been working closely with our colleagues on assessment needs. Late last year, we had the expert skills group on the future requirements of the green economy which identified that we needed in the region of 17,000 workers in the retrofit sector. We have approximately 6,000 workers in the sector at the moment. Five education training boards, ETBs, have been identified as centres of excellence for training up workers. The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has allocated €17 million this year to double the number of apprentices coming out specialising in retrofit trades and the green economy.

On the BER assessor community, we have a significant number on the BER register at the moment. We have targets to achieve and year-on-year growth in the BER assessor community within the climate action plan. I will invite my colleague, Dara Stewart, who runs that part of the organisation to comment on the BER assessors.