Ms Clare O'Connor:

We welcome the Senator’s comments on the finance issue and the fact that most people cannot afford the other half of the cost that the grant provided does not cover. Mr. MacEvilly mentioned our partnership with Bohemians Football Club, which was a community engagement piece looking at how communities can co-create solutions for retrofitting at a local level. This brought together the SEAI and Codema, which is Dublin’s energy agency, and a credit union came along as well. The credit union was very willing and enthusiastic about coming up with creative solutions for this issue of bridging finance. It looked at forming a common bond specifically for members of this football club, leading to greenhouse loans and so on. I note the Government has introduced low-cost loans but expanding that to the credit unions would be a positive step forward. Low-cost loans will work for some people but there are still many people who cannot access credit for loads of reasons and it is important that is noted. Looking at other EU countries, it is either the Netherlands or Germany that has introduced a zero-interest loan for people who are on low incomes, which I think would be a much better solution for people who cannot access low-interest loans.