Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his opening statement. I want to refer to a study that the Department of public expenditure did back in 2020. I think it was by the economic and evaluation service staff in the Department. They looked at the social impact assessment of SEAI programmes that were targeting energy poverty. At the time, it came out with the rather staggering conclusion that because of the level of data collected on those programmes around household income and use of energy and reductions in use of energy, it was not possible to provide an assessment of the scheme's impact on its recipients. We are now seeing the highest rate of energy poverty - I believe it is at 29% - since 1994 or 1995. That report recommended that an updated social impact assessment be carried out. Will the Minister give a commitment that that will happen and that the data will now be collected in order that we can evaluate whether those retrofitting programmes, and the grants-based ones in particular, are not just wealth transfers but are reducing both our emissions and our energy poverty levels?