Mr. Seamus Hoyne:

I am happy to contribute. Dr. Engel Purcell and Dr. Daly made a point about capacity building. We have built on the experience of the original programme developed by the Heritage Council and we have just validated a new certificate in energy renovation of traditional buildings. It takes that original lecture series, as Dr. Engel Purcell termed it. That is now a validated module but we have also added a module in terms of digital tools for defect analysis in traditional buildings. The first point is to build up the capacity in the sector. We are launching that programme which will start again in June. We hope to have more than 100 people on that. There is considerable knowledge in the sector in terms of retrofitting and renovation of buildings.

In essence, every retrofit, whether it is on a traditional building or a non-traditional building, is actually unique because it is a home. It is a building. The people who want to occupy it have particular requests or demands and there are particular energy targets. The traditional or culture building brings in additional technical considerations that need to be taken care of. It is those nuances for which capacity in the sector needs to be built in. There will certainly be a percentage of buildings that need expert people and maybe a limited number of those. The first point is to bring existing architects, engineers and specifiers up to speed on the different approaches that need to be taken and the right and appropriate approaches. For the traditional buildings, it is the appropriate solution rather than the technical physics solution that needs to be considered.

Work is ongoing on capacity. The Heritage Council is very committed to this agenda and there is considerable interest. Marrying that with the policy initiatives to allow us to focus on these buildings in town centres will open up capacity for people to live there. We need to make sure we align the policy and the incentives for people to purchase these homes and then retrofit them in an energy-efficient, emission-reduction-friendly and appropriate manner.

The higher education and education and training spaces are certainly very committed to supporting capacity building. There is considerable experience among people in Ireland and internationally on which we can build to address these types of buildings.