Dr. Ciaran Byrne:

I will take the remaining couple of points arising from Deputy Bruton's questions. One of them, I think, had to do with the growth in the market in respect of B2 ratings. We are putting in the foundations for a multi-annual, decade-long plan in respect of building the pipeline, the market and the suppliers. We are starting off at this point with the first of the one-stop shops. We will be working on this right through to 2030. We have a significant target of B2 ratings to reach. We want to achieve approximately 65,000 to 70,000 B2 ratings per year from 2026 or 2027 onwards, towards the end of the decade. We are at the early stages of that. As Mr. O'Mahony mentioned, a significant amount of work has been done in preparation for these one-stop shops in developing the national retrofit plan and scaling the various parts of the market. From the launch in February, we have started officially and we are out at it, even though the SEAI has a 20-year history of delivering retrofits. We are starting to realise the step change in ambition in respect of delivery. The cruising altitude, if I may call it that, is about 60,000 to 65,000 B2 ratings per year.

As for the point about the loan scheme, we are working very closely with our colleagues in the Department on that. The Department is taking the lead role in that. A lot of the work will be done by quarter 3. We hope and anticipate that that will be available at the retail banks by quarter 4 of this year. We are supporting that work. We have some people on our team working on the energy finance side of supporting it. My understanding is that the European Investment Bank, EIB, is undertaking its due diligence on the scheme. Obviously, it will do that to its satisfaction.

I will make a final point about stepping away from the B2 ratings. That is a very interesting point and one we will keep abreast of as this crisis moves on. The committee should be aware that we have a number of other schemes. The one-stop shop scheme is focused on B2 ratings. We also have the better energy homes scheme, which consists of the individual measures for the can-pay sector. That scheme allows homeowners to carry out just one or two measures. It is not focused on achieving a B2 rating. The warmer homes scheme is the scheme for the energy-poor. We achieve a number of B2 ratings under that scheme but we also do some shallower retrofits under it. As this crisis matures, we are keeping a close eye on that. We may have to pivot back on the scheme to look at different measures so we encompass more people rather than carrying out more measures for fewer people. It is a live situation and we are keeping abreast of it.