John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is really excellent. Not only is it about creating new apprenticeships and attracting people into the market, it is also about, as Mr. Hoyne stated earlier, trying either to get people to return from abroad or to take them back home. It is important then that people who are currently in those sectors can segue into the retrofitting market and, as Mr. Hoyne said, play a leading role as project site managers or the managers of a retrofit scheme. More emphasis on that is useful.

The retrofit scheme is excellent. A small issue I have with it is my discovery that there is no real update for people who live in protected structures. For example, the street that I live on is all protected structures. There are so many cases where people cannot put in double-glazed windows; they have to stick with single-glazed windows. Such people are at a severe disadvantage and are not able to get their homes retrofitted. It is something I brought up with the Minister previously where it was said that they are trying to look at a steering group to oversee within the Department, the objective of which is to finalise guidance for public consultation later in the year. That will try to give advice to people about how best to retrofit a home when they live in a protected structure. In Dr. Purcell's experience, how does that go about? If I am living in a protected structure, the home is 100 years old and I want to have energy efficient savings and retrofit it, is that an extremely difficult process? The Department is trying to put together something for those people. What is Dr. Purcell's professional view on that?