Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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I address my first questions to the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland. Much of what has been discussed amounts to a no-brainer. It is good for the environment and the retrofits are good too. We may end up with a trade surplus if we are not obliged to import all our energy and we produce energy savings and so on. Utility bills are a major issue for people at the moment. I am interested in two particular aspects, one of which is the pay-as-you-save scheme. I do not understand why it has taken so long. Is the blockage related to the legislation? I understood it was almost ready to roll at the end of the lifetime of the previous Government, but it is likely to be at least a further year to 18 months before it is rolled out. Given that it has the potential to offer gainful employment as well as everything else, I am curious about such a delay.

Which Department is the authority dealing with? I received an answer to a question last week from the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources but some weeks beforehand the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation rolled out a scheme in this area. I am curious about what is going on.

I was involved with someone who was trying to put together a better energy communities pilot scheme. We were considering partners who might be compatible. The timeframe on the pilot scheme was remarkably tight and I am surprised there were 18 schemes. Will the authority outline the findings and whether 18 schemes is sufficient to give the authority a robust overview of what could be gained from the scheme? I see the merits in it.

The building control regime sounds great in principle and it is the right thing to do in policy terms. Will it work in practice? I have serious concerns about it. I have seen the inner workings of local authorities. In my experience developers do not take much notice of enforcement notices. They do not take them as seriously as they sound because there is no follow through and no ability to follow through, although there should be. The Department stated that the Minister has no role in enforcement but he has a role with regard to the embargo on staffing. If there is insufficient staffing to provide the enforcement required, then there is a doubt about whether it is workable.

My experience has been that because there are 37 different local authorities, they do not share the relevant information. If someone is a serial offender, she could run out of offences in one area and then move to the next. We saw a good example of this with the developer of Priory Hall, who previously developed in Laois or Offaly and left a trail of destruction after him. The lack of a co-ordinating function to watch particular individuals means that often these people have done the damage before they are caught. Is the Department satisfied that sufficient sanction is in place? Is the sanction available if one does not get it through the courts with a judgment and if it takes so long? I know that some enforcement notices relating to planning infringements take two or three years to get to the courts. If someone decides not to pay any attention, some notices will not even get that far because there are insufficient staff available to deal with them. Unless we examine the practical delivery in addition to the improvements in the legal framework, it will not be possible to provide the cover that people require.