Mr. Robert Deegan:

The Deputy made some very interesting points. I will go through a few of them rapid-fire and we can go through them again at another time, if he likes.

With regard to the grants no longer matching the cost of heating systems, one of the very important initiatives that was introduced in the range of measures that was brought in back in February was about closing the gap between the oil boiler and the heat pump to try to not have people able to use that as an excuse, as much as anything else. We want to be able to convince them that this is the right technology for them but also to make it affordable for them. In terms of the partial grants, that gap has been narrowed.

With regard to the workforce and training, that is going to be a huge challenge and the Deputy has put forward quite a creative solution in terms of the school leavers. I know this is a very important issue for the Minister, Deputy Harris, at the moment in terms of giving school leavers and people later on in their career the options. It is not all about college. One of the important initiatives is that when people go to the CAO website now, it lets them know about the types of options in terms of apprenticeships.

To give specific numbers on the training places that our colleagues in the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science are putting on this year, as Mr. Byrne mentioned earlier, there is €17 million under the green skills action programme and that will double the places in upskilling and reskilling to 4,500. There was some very positive news on apprenticeships as well last year.