Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 5 April 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Implementation of the New National Retrofit Plan: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland

Mr. William Walsh:

I will just add one point before Ms McCarthy comes in. This is the largest infrastructure project ever undertaken in the State. It is important for the committee to understand the scale of this and that it is a very extensive project. Over the next number of years we intend to pivot, learn, improve and continue to build and the heat study has helped us with this. We will build that capacity to move from 8,000 this year to bigger numbers and to develop that capacity as a nation to start delivering the 50,000 or 60,000 homes that we need every year.

The other point there is that this is a very significantly important part of just transition. Jobs that are going to be lost in other sectors are going to be created within the retrofit sector. I am giving this information by way of high-level background before Ms McCarthy makes her contribution.