Ms Avril N? Shearcaigh:

Regarding anecdotal evidence from retrofitting homes and the outcomes there, I think it comes down very simply to making homes warmer and insulating them. A lot of the time, not just on islands but in rural communities, those who are in fuel poverty are living in older stone-built homes. They are very difficult to insulate and they are very difficult to heat.

As the cost of energy rises and carbon taxes are coming in, they become more and more expensive to heat, because the heat is escaping so quickly from the homes. Much of the time, when we look at retrofitting homes and when we talk about insulating or installing heat pumps, even the simple thing of not having to lug coal in and out to put it on solid fuel fire makes life easier straight away for somebody who is older, if they do not have to worry about going in and out during the winter, lugging in buckets of coal. It is not easy to retrofit many of these stone-built homes and older houses, so there is a huge challenge, not just on islands or in rural communities but nationwide. Any of the older of people I have met who have had work done on their homes and who have had them retrofitted are generally very happy. Their homes are more comfortable as a result, which is a fantastic thing.

There is a huge learning curve as well because these technologies work very differently from what people may be used to. This is not just the case for older people but for everybody. There is therefore a big role for contractors who are installing things into people's homes that they ensure people understand how they work and how they run. You cannot turn a heat pump on and off like you did your oil boiler. It does not work that way; you are supposed to leave it on constantly and it does its own thing. People who get this technology for the first time may not understand how exactly to run it most efficiently. That is very important as well, because you do not want people having this technology installed and then having really high energy bills as a result and not understanding why, because they are not using the technology properly. That is also really important.

In terms of the engagement with the Horizon Europe researchers, we have found that to be transformative for our co-operative, for a start. We do not receive any kind of core funding from the Government or any national agency. All our funding for all our work comes through our engagement with the Horizon Europe research project. They create a lot of work on their own as well, but they are aligned with our aims, objectives and what we are trying to achieve. Unfortunately, we have not engaged in a project that looks at smart storage heaters. It is something we are trying to do, but we have to work with other agencies and universities to submit these applications. We are not really in a position to submit them ourselves or to lead them ourselves. We are always trying to look for projects that are aligned with our own aims and objectives. We are looking at different technologies that could be installed and trialled or piloted on the islands.

We have looked at other smart solutions. As I mentioned earlier, there was a demand response project. We have not looked, however, at the smart storage heaters in terms of Horizon Europe research. We are very lucky that we engage with many of these projects. We learn an awful lot. We are not experts. I am not an engineer. We do not have backgrounds in that area. Being able to work with them and learn from them is massive. It is fantastic that there is a role for non-profit groups and community groups in Horizon Europe research as well as for groups from universities and people from the commercial sector. We have learned a tremendous amount from all the different partners we have had across all the different research projects in which we have been involved to date.

When it comes to engaging with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, and using the islands as an area in which to replicate smart solutions, that will be hugely important. We speak about our aims to be lighthouse communities or lighthouse islands for other islands and other communities. There is a huge opportunity there. That is something the CRU should be looking at in terms of giving us a little bit more flexibility and working with us. We probably do not understand all the issues that are involved, but it would be great to be able to work with it, to learn, to try to make suggestions, and then to see exactly what can be done and to be a little bit more flexible on it. This is something the CRU is going to have to look at sooner rather than later. The intermittency of renewables across the country as we move to renewables and as we eliminate fossil fuels is going to cause huge issues. It will be a significant complication and a lot of work for the CRU and all the other stakeholders involved. Therefore, there is a real opportunity for the commission here if it is willing to trial these technologies on our islands and scale it up, because we operate the grid here. It is an isolated part of the national grid and it operates in exactly the same way. We actually have something to offer, as opposed to us just looking for something all the time. We do actually have something to offer in return that way.