Mr. Robert Deegan:

I thank the Deputy for her questions. She raised three matters, the first of which was the skills shortage. The national retrofit plan addresses skills and standards in the workforce, which also speaks to Deputy O'Callaghan's point. One of the first actions under that pillar was quantifying the number of people that we needed. There are approximately 4,000 people in the retrofit workforce at the moment, but we need to increase that number rapidly to 17,000 within two or three years. The allocation provided to the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science for upskilling, reskilling and apprenticeships will be crucial. There is a near doubling of places to 4,500 for upskilling and reskilling. This will mean that new entrants and existing workers in the sector can train up quickly. People will not necessarily have to go through four-year apprenticeships.

Regarding the loan scheme, particularly as it relates to older people, loans will be provided through financial institutions, which will need to follow their due diligence processes just as they would for any other loan. That is an important point to make. Regarding universality and ensuring that we have supports for all those who need them, a high percentage of older people are entitled to some welfare payments that in turn entitle them to free upgrades under the warmer homes scheme. There may be a requirement for other options. The health benefits that accrue from retrofits would be beneficial for older people and we are keen to keep people out of nursing care and in their homes in their own communities for as long as possible. The approach that we are taking to the loan scheme is about getting it up and running and operating through financial institutions later this year. We hope to make it a more affordable proposition for people. The terms will not be defined, so if the older person believes that he or she can repay a loan within a shorter period that was also suitable for the bank's purposes, that would be possible.

There will be a significant increase in output this year. Does my colleague, Dr. Byrne, wish to comment on that?