Mr. Brian O'Mahony:

I do not have the numbers to hand for how many homes have smart controllers in them now or modern heating control systems but we can provide that to the Deputy afterwards. I can say that in the last decade we have seen significant growth in homes putting in modern heating control systems such as those the Deputy mentioned. This technology is being deployed at relatively low cost and is achieving bill savings for home owners and reducing the energy use which is helping to decarbonise the sector. We need to focus our efforts now on delivering the deeper retrofits which achieve much deeper carbon savings and deliver better benefits for the homeowner. That is where the focus of Government policy and all the programmes that SEAI implements has been. I am not saying heating controls are not a good thing to support. They are part of the suite of measures we support.