Dr. John Curtis:

I have worked on the SEAI grant scheme. One of the conclusions in the research reports is that the grant scheme should in essence be changed. We provide grants at present for retrofits on the inputs, for the goods we buy and put into the house and not the outcomes. In a sense the grant should be switched over, so that one gets a grant for how much energy savings or emissions savings one gets, not how much stuff you buy. That refers back to my earlier comments that without the best advice, people were doing the best they could. They were changing the windows when perhaps they should have been upgrading the envelope and so on. However, if one was getting the grant based on the improvement in the outcome, one would force oneself not to make a mistake and to go and get independent advice. That is one area where we could do better on the incentives.