David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To encourage people to take part in programmes, they have to be supported financially. I have come across one in particular which involved an unpaid placement. That was a major disincentive for the individual concerned to carry on with the training. I will leave it at that and the witnesses might come back to me on it.

We are also interested in hearing from the SEAI about safety, which is extremely important. I notice that there are two lists, an installer registration form and also a company registration form. The company registration form lists 49 conditions, which is amazing. Both forms are very rigorous. The installer registration form refers to the training the installer has. As the witnesses are aware, there are 12 different institutions that train installers, who must be certified and qualified, in particular if they are dealing with electricity, solar energy, and so forth. That has been done well. If somebody registers with the SEAI and it is all fine and they go through the form they also have to be registered with Safe Electric. What happens if they lose their registered electrical contractor, REC, status for some reason? Is there a check to ensure that everybody who works through an SEAI forum is on Safe Electric's register of electrical contractors?