Mr. William Walsh:

I thank the Chair and committee member for the invitation to attend the meeting today to discuss the SEAI financial statements for 2021. I am joined by my colleagues, Ms Marion O'Brien, director of corporate services; Mr. Ciaran Byrne, director of national retrofit; Mr. Declan Meally, director of business, public sector and transport; and Ms Margie McCarthy, director of research, policy and insights. I am joined online by Ms Olivia O'Connor, head of finance, and Mr. Tom Halpin, head of communications. We have submitted additional briefing materials to the committee in advance of today's appearance and I thank the committee for the opportunity to make our opening statement.

SEAI is Ireland's national energy authority. Last year, we launched our new strategic plan 2022-2025, supporting SEAI as we scale up to deliver our 2030 and 2050 targets, driving Ireland's sustainable energy transformation for the benefit of all society. Our strategy sets out a clear vision to lead Ireland's energy revolution. This revolution requires fundamental change across all aspects of Irish society and will transform the way we all live. Over the past five years, SEAI has grown four-fold. This growth is underpinned by the increasing urgency of our work. We appreciate the continued trust and confidence that is shown to us by Government, as evidenced by the budget allocation for 2023, which amounts to just under €600 million. We are an organisation that is committed to delivering our targets through a well-governed and customer-centric system.

SEAI has built successes on the foundation of a strong governance framework. Our culture and activities continue to be underpinned by this from design to implementation. We are proud to have retained our SWiFT 3000 certification during the past year. In parallel, we have invested in our people with significant growth in our staff and expertise, which is essential to delivering our climate and energy targets. We attended the committee in March last year and outlined our ambition for 2022, which included significant growth across all aspects of our work. I am happy to report to the committee that we have substantively delivered on those ambitions. This is despite uncertainty in the global economy and energy sector due to the ongoing geopolitical crisis.

Highlights from SEAI's 2022 achievements include the following: we supported 27,200 home energy upgrades including almost 4,500 energy-poor homes. We deployed the new one-stop shop service announced by the Minister in February 2022. We have committed €63 million to 24 community energy products and are supporting the development of 35 potential community renewable electricity projects. We have supported more than 2,500 businesses in their energy transition. Through funding from the Department of Transport, we have grant-aided the purchase of 10,894 battery electric vehicles, EVs. We have published Ireland's national heat study, which is feeding into the evolving national heat policy. Our public sector partnerships scaled up to support 350 public sector bodies in their climate action roadmap development, energy management and emissions reduction strategy. We launched the "Reduce Your Use" public sector campaign in partnership with the Office of Public Works, OPW, supporting the public sector mandate to reduce energy consumption over the winter.

SEAI was designated under statute as the market surveillance authority and single point of contact for renewable energy projects. We launched the new energy efficiency obligations scheme. We have input across a range of policies and climate actions in 2022, including supporting and informing policy making through the provision of data, funding and performing research and providing insights on Ireland's energy performance and transition. We have approved 44 new national energy research, development and demonstration projects, totalling €19 million in funding. In 2022, our customer contacts centre served almost 280,000 enquires from our customers across all our programmes. Further achievements are detailed within the briefing pack.

2022 was significant in many other ways. Setting aside the core programme delivery, the Russian invasion of Ukraine prompted an energy crisis and further exacerbated the cost-of-living crisis. These impacted our programmes in different ways. People wanted to save energy and reduce bills and so turned to SEAI for advice and support. However, for some of those, it may have been unaffordable, and for others, they were challenged by contractor availability and post-pandemic supply chain issues.

SEAI informed the development of the Climate Action Plan 2023, in which we expect to play a lead role across many actions. To meet the demands, we have built our capacity in numbers and additional competencies to ensure we are fit for purpose for the decade ahead. Members of the Committee of Public Accounts may have noted our recent recruitment campaign. In 2022, many sectors were impacted by the capacity and skills gap, and this is particularly evident in the wider construction sector. We would like to acknowledge the work of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, as well as other Departments and agencies in supporting the development of skills and apprenticeship pipelines.

What SEAI achieved in 2022 supported the just transition by delivering on our fully-funded energy upgrade schemes, supporting households that received certain welfare payments, while also enabling low-cost measures in homes with immediate impact during this period of high energy costs. We also increased grant levels and provided greater choice for shallow and deeper retrofit works. The Government's determination to drive Ireland's clean energy transition could not be clearer. Aside from meeting our targets, decarbonisation will deliver enormous benefits to society, including healthier environments in which to live, employment opportunities and increased efficiencies and competitiveness.

Ireland is a world leader in many aspects of the energy transition, such as wind energy deployment and progress on home energy upgrades. SEAI will work tireless with all energy users and guide and support them in their energy transition with the underpinning goal of a decarbonised society. Members of the committee and elected representatives more broadly will play a key role in mobilising and supporting constituents and communities to take action to reduces and decarbonise their energy. Before closing, I would like to invite the committee members to visit the SEAI Energy Show 2023, which will take place in the RDS on 29 and 30 March. This exhibition will attract more than 4,000 attendees and is the clearest demonstration possible of the vibrance and innovation of the sustainable energy sector that is rapidly becoming a key pillar of our economy.

I would like to bring it to the attention of the committee that the financial statements for 2021 were audited by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, approved by the board of SEAI and duly assigned ahead of the deadline of 30 June 2022. These financial statements were incorporated into the SEAI annual report for the Oireachtas on December 2022. Unfortunately, there were transposition errors in the reproduction of the financial statements into the annual report. There are no errors in the financial statements certified by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General. I wish to apologise for this administrative error and for any inconvenience that has been caused to members who are now in receipt of the corrected annual report, which includes the correct version of the financial statements. We have made the appropriate adjustments to our processes to ensure this does not reoccur.

In conclusion, I want to acknowledge the strategic leadership provided by the board of SEAI and thank the staff for their commitment and dedication and, in particular, their efforts and support as we scale at pace to meet increasing targets. I wish to thank our colleagues at the Departments of Environment, Climate and Communications, and Transport and the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, for their ongoing support, particularly in the context of the actions assigned to SEAI under the Climate Action Plan 2023 and with our ever-increasing mandate.