Mr. Robert Deegan:

On housing aid for older people, I have not raised with the Department of housing that it would do a block of work. However, to reassure the Deputy, we have good and ongoing conversations with the Department of housing for a couple of reasons. First, it is responsible for local authority housing stock, and we have overall responsibility for the retrofit targets. The second is that it is responsible for building regulations, in particular the major renovation part of those.

That is the bit that is focused on energy efficiency and retrofitting in particular. Finally, it also has overarching responsibility for the energy performance of buildings directive, which we had a key role in helping to negotiate and deliver.

In terms of local authority housing and the need for retrofits, there is a commitment in the climate action plan that 30,000 homes will be upgraded by the end of the decade. I think there is an acknowledgement that this does not cover all of the houses that need to be retrofitted in the local authority housing stock. More work is going to have to be done in the years beyond 2030 to ensure all of the homes are brought up-----