Mr. Declan Meally:

From the perspective of the grant system and from what we have seen with businesses, we sense-check the prices in terms of any of the industry retrofits. Similarly, any of the retrofits through the public sector are done through public procurement. All of that is procured through a tendering process so that we are getting the most competitive price in relation to the funding that is provided. Similarly, in terms of the works that are out there, we do a sense-check to see whether the costs are in the order of what they should be for businesses and the commercial sector.

My colleagues are not here from the residential side, but we also do constant checks with regard to what is coming in in terms of the cost of the grant. The grants for the domestic side are fixed, so they are fixed rates. Again, that is a proportion of what we pay in relation to domestic costs. There may be people who are saying they will operate outside a grant, but they are not working to the quality or level of rigour in terms of inspections and otherwise and to the quality standard we would be putting them through.

There are a lot of things at play but what we are seeing coming through in the public and commercial sectors are legitimate and appropriate costs. Again, we provide a percentage of the grant to the businesses and the public sector.