Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join in the congratulations to the Minister on his new role. As I know him and have met him at various events around Cork city, metropolitan area and county, I know that his knowledge of businesses from micro-businesses to the larger ones will definitely suit the role. There is a lot of excitement in the Cork area because of that.

I will pick up a point Deputy Farrell touched on. The Minister might have covered it in his answer. I might have missed it. It was the case a few months ago that small businesses had to have expenditure of €10,000 to avail of the small retrofitting energy grant for items such as insulation, windows, heating systems and so on. It may have been amended or changed since. Perhaps the Minister could clarify that. My understanding is that micro-businesses who did not have expenditure of €10,000 could not avail of the grants. The perfect example would be a small craft shop in a small town that might be in an old terraced building with single glazed windows, attic space and so on. Has that requirement been amended or could it be looked at to include smaller businesses that have expenditure of less than €10,000?