Mr. Seamus Boland:

I thank Senator Garvey. I appreciate her comments. I know she has been a long-time supporter of what we do. I know there is not much time to address it. The Senator raised the issue of community engagement. It is good that in Clare and other areas, there is a certain amount of roll-out of community engagement. What we are talking about is much more than that. We propose strongly that a cohesive, one-stop shop type of roll-out that is the same in Clare, north Offaly, Roscommon, Kildare, and so on, with the same workshop wherever you go. We believe SEAI should be at the head of doing that because it has the experts and, frankly, I do not think it is visible enough. We hold events to get our policies in place. When we hold them, we are continually confronted with a lack of expertise and a lack of knowledge. It is a bit like when people seek advice about whether or not to buy an electric car when living in rural Ireland. They will get as many answers for it as they will against it.

The problem for householders is that they have a house that might have been built in the 1940s, with many things wrong with it which will cost €80,000 to address. What is the best solution? I do not want an either-or solution. We need the experts there on the night, delivering the same knowledge. I would argue that any workshop that does not have the SEAI at it is, I am afraid, slightly inadequate, because people are not getting the full information. They need the experts to be there. We held a community engagement programme on septic tanks, for example, a few years ago, in 2014 and 2015. We brought experts to the table. There was no messing about which septic tank people needed or did not need in a rural area, because it was the same advice. We want workshops to be much more organised and structured, with the experts there, in every single county. It is not necessarily the responsibility of the local authorities.

If those local authorities take responsibility, they should at least do the same in County Roscommon as they do in counties Offaly, Westmeath, Kerry, etc.