Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will turn it around. I am wondering how we can help, what else needs to be done and what more supports the representatives need. They have huge challenges. In some ways, everybody in every business wants to go green for lots of different reasons. It is the witnesses' job to make it happen and to make sure the skills are there. I know there are targets for engagement but the carbon emissions targets have to be front and centre of everything everybody is doing right now if we are to be serious about future-proofing. As was famously said, if it is not climate proof it is not future-proof. Businesses want to play their part, as does every individual.

When the Skillnet people are working further, would it be good to have climate carbon targets so when they are engaging with businesses their engagement is not just around getting the skills? If it was linked to carbon targets, it might encourage businesses to upskill because that is what it is all about now. It is about carbon reduction.

The SEAI has a monumental task. It has been at this a long time but its role has blown up, especially with all the funding there now, which is luckily being given through the Government, and grants to do all these things. It is the same with Skillnet. One of the things I see with deep retrofits - I do not know whether this is true for businesses but I do not think it is - is that the aim has to be a B2 energy rating. Even if it is F, it has to go from F to B2. Lots of people ask me whether they could get to D or C first, and whether the SEAI could give them funding for that. A couple of things, such as roof insulation, are at a high percentage but many of them are at a lower percentage of 30% to 50%. It is a big jump for a lot of people. We are asking them to do a lot in a small amount of time. In some ways, they want to do it maybe more than the State agencies that have been set up to do it. Asking people to go from an F to a B2 seems a lot. It is only because the SEAI is here that I am asking this. It has been raised with me as well.

As somebody who was a single mum and did not have a lot of money for a long time, I always wanted to have a lovely A1 or B2 energy-rated house but it was just not an option. We do social housing and all that, although I did not have a social house, but jumping up to a B2 as a first aim, starting from a very low base, makes it more difficult. Would the SEAI bring more people on board if it were phased? It does not want them to stay at D or C or whatever it is, but could it be phased so that people would get money to bring them to a D first and there would then be a grant to get up to a B or C? We need to bring everybody with us. For every business and individual, what we have to do is huge. We do not want wars to dictate the price of businesses being able to stay open or closed. We need to be independent. We need them to go green energy wise for purely economic as well as climate reasons. If we can link carbon emissions to everything we do, that would be very important.

It is great that both organisations said they were engaging with SOLAS. That is very good. I am glad to hear there is not as much duplication as I feared. However, I am surprised it has taken us more than three years for, finally, a couple of the SOLAS programmes to be updated. If everybody had input, I am surprised it took three years, with all the great people involved in inputting with SOLAS. It is to be hoped that is happening for all the different skills needed and not just a few that are apparently happening this December.

I am getting some updates on the plumbing programme and possibly the carpentry programme. Somebody has to work on prior learning recognition and the shortcuts for people who already have degrees and masters. I do not know if the organisations are involved in any of that, but it will help them. If skilled workers are needed to do the work for the SEAI, the educational programmes are needed for people who want to have the skills.