Ms Ruth Buggie:

I am happy to take that question. The potential is absolutely huge. The ambition that we see at a community level is incredible. We talk about the stage of doing an energy project, but communities are doing from the very day they start. I refer to all they do in hosting events and bringing people together, identifying contractors, trying to identify supply chains to do works and trying to see which buildings need the most work. Even just coming together and having that conversation with local people is hugely valuable to us. Obviously, during Covid we did not see as much of that, but they have come back very strongly in recent months and we are seeing an awful lot more activity in terms of communities launching energy master plans. It is very welcome that local authorities have stepped up and are doing the pre-funding of the energy master plan for communities. A number of local authorities have reached out and said that they see the opportunity there, that those local energy master plans will feed into their climate action plan at a county level. They see the opportunity to be able to bring them together. We encourage communities to look for their unique opportunities and challenges. Personally, and from an ambition point of view, when communities knock on the door, I wish I could hand them their energy master plans and then help them get started, rather than start the process with them having to draw up those plans themselves. We hold a lot of data in Ireland and we want to try to find better ways to give the information to guide them on their doing stage, which would be hugely valuable. The mentors are in place and they are great.

There is significant funding outside of the SEAI as well. The Minister launched grant information late last year for €60 million under the climate action fund, which is another key area of funding. There was a recent announcement for community centres of €15 million. The question is how we get communities geared up to participate and how we make the processes easier for communities to participate as well.