Ms Rebecca Minch:

I would like to put the point that was made about the public sector building stock into context. The target set for the public sector is to improve its energy efficiency by 33% by 2020. That is even higher than the target set for the rest of the economy and society. Significant opportunities exist in this regard. It has been made clear in the SEAI's annual reports on public sector energy efficiency performance that since 2009, the public sector has improved its energy efficiency by 20%. It has reached the level that we are trying to get the rest of the economy to reach.

While good progress has been made, real challenges remain. One of these involves the deeper retrofit of the building stock. Much of the progress that has been made so far has come from behaviour change, which is extremely important, through the OPW's Optimising Power at Work scheme. We need to maintain our efforts in that regard. We have achieved a lot, but we are now at a juncture where we need to move on. The next step change in effort must involve achieving savings by upgrading the fabric of public sector buildings. To that end, the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment made €6 million available in 2017 for a partnership scheme between the SEAI and the OPW to carry out retrofits of central government buildings. This scheme had a successful first year. The critical thing is to get replicable packages in areas like procurement, specification and design that can be rolled out in a cost-effective way across the building stock. A further €2 million has been provided as part of a partnership between the SEAI and the Department of Education and Skills for a deep retrofit of ten schools around the country. Some of those schools have seen energy savings of as much as 40% as a result. All of that tells us there is a big opportunity in this area.

Of course, funding all of this has been a very big challenge in more recent years. The Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment is leading a new governance network of senior managers across all Departments to identify a project pipeline out to 2020 but also beyond. We think our approach out to 2020, which focuses on heating and lighting, is a cost-effective one. We will take opportunities before 2020 as they arise. We are working closely with the SEAI and the OPW to identify where opportunities arise in the life cycle of public sector buildings and where it is cost-effective to carry out deep renovations.

New builds are also important. The public sector is showing the way in that regard. That is why the public sector is required to adhere to the nearly zero energy building regulations two years ahead of the wider economy.