Ms R?is?n Greaney:

Absolutely. There are huge issues around that cohort of people who fall between the warmer homes scheme and being able to afford an upfront investment. As I mentioned, low cost loans are an option but also expansion of the funds under the carbon tax that are used towards energy efficiency. A report that came out last year by Friends of the Earth, Blockages to Retrofitting and Heat-pump Installation in Ireland, has some interesting recommendations about area-based approaches to retrofitting. What could be done is that, at a street or community scale, grants are offered based on people's ability to pay, all the way up, in order to try to address that gap.

To address the Deputy’s earlier question about the use of HVO in homes for heating, we have not looked into that but it is potentially something we could take away.