Dr. Ciaran Byrne:

There are quite a number of offerings out there at the moment in respect of green finance, green loans and whatnot. At the end of February, the Department and the Minister are due to launch the low-cost loan scheme for retrofits, which was delayed because of various technical constants around how the scheme would develop funding. Schemes were developed and low-cost finance options came along at a time when interest rates were rising. We have gone back to the well and priced in a buy-down of the interest rates. At the end of February, a low-cost scheme specifically for retrofitting will be launched to help exactly the cohort of people about whom the Deputy is talking, that is, those who are just over the bar and do not qualify for any free upgrades. Such people may, on the face of it, have what looks like a good house and standard of living and all the rest of it but the actual money to do the works is not there at the end of the day. That scheme is targeted at such people and will launch at the end of February. The interest rates will be significantly discounted when compared with those currently available on the market. It will be run out through a number of financial institutions. Those institutions will manage the scheme but it will be predicated on doing works that are approved, signed up to and contracted from SEAI schemes. We anticipate it will have a significant effect on the cohort of homeowners to whom the Deputy referred.

Much of the work and market analysis we have done shows that there is a quite an appetite for people to do retrofitting, but it is about the credit and funding available.