Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the delegation and the report, which I believe will be of assistance in helping Ireland to devise a roadmap to deal with its carbon emissions. In the witnesses' view, how important is it to engage stakeholders directly in this process, including implementation, design and so on? Some organisations are of the view that we should develop policy and legislation first, following which everything else will fall into place. In my view, stakeholders should be involved from the outset. We need to encourage buy-in and understanding if we are going to effect real change. I am interested to hear the witnesses view on this.

I agree with Deputy Murphy that we need to change attitudes towards energy efficiency. The SEAI must be complimented on some of the schemes it has operated to date. How do we go about supplementing those schemes? The SEAI is currently running a community scheme, in respect of which it invited submissions from local authorities and community groups, which is very successful. However, what we need now is information on the outcome of schemes, including on savings achieved and reductions in carbon emissions. The pay-as-you-save scheme was mentioned. We need to see more details on that scheme also.

To what extent has the report addressed issues such as co-ordination between public authorities in terms of achieving a reduction in carbon emissions? If institutions of the State are not addressing this matter in a co-ordinated, consistent fashion, how then can we expect citizens to do so? We need to start with facilities in respect of which the State has facilities management, including public buildings such as schools, institutions, Garda stations, Leinster House and so on. We need to show where the real reductions in carbon emissions are being achieved by way of new technologies and so on. There are some measures of this type in place. The SEAI, in conjunction with the Department of Education and Skills, recently launched a new website for schools in relation to energy conservation and reducing carbon emissions. However, we need to go beyond this. Does the report detail how this type of action could be co-ordinated at public sector level prior to engagement at citizenship level?

In my view, many of the schemes previously introduced were priced way above what was possible for ordinary people, in particular in rural Ireland. Elderly people do not understand geothermal renewable schemes and certainly cannot afford them. I do not understand why we do not incentivise the replacement of an open fire, which is approximately 20% efficient, with a solid fuel stove, which is almost 75% efficient. This would allow people to ensure proper heating of their homes at a much reduced cost. I believe people would buy into this type of scheme, thus reducing our carbon emissions.