Ms Rebecca Minch:

To come back to the question of deep retrofit, particularly in the residential sector but also in the built environment, Deputy Ryan is quite right that we must find a way to achieve much deeper levels of renovation and energy efficiency and switching from fossil fuels in the residential sector. We have seen the EPA's continual greenhouse gas emissions projections. While measures might contain emissions from the residential sector, they would continue to grow without much deeper levels of renovation. However, an important point to remember in this regard, which experience over recent years has borne out, is that it is not just the provision of financing that brings about the activity we require on the ground; we must remember that for energy efficiency policy to take effect, individual citizens must decide to act of their own volition. This level of central direction is not available to us, so we must make the proposition for deep renovation, of which financing is just one part. This is why €5 million is being allocated to the deep retrofit pilot in 2017 to establish not just the financing options, but the entire suite of the energy efficiency package that will encourage people to make the decision to act, make that investment and seek to borrow money, which would still need to be complemented by a grant or incentive element. The point is that financing is critically important, but there is very clear evidence in Ireland and further afield that it is not the only factor. The proposition must be attractive to consumers beforehand.