Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 11 October 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland

Dr. Ciaran Byrne:

The Deputy referred to a "charge". The answer is that every journey starts with the first step. It is important to reiterate that we started on this particular part of the journey on 8 February when we announced the launch of the one-stop shops and the re-profiling of all the grant schemes. We are absolutely in the capacity-building phase. We are looking to the targets that the Deputy and others have referenced and what we need to achieve towards the end of the decade. However, we must build the foundations. We have seen solarcoasters in other jurisdictions, with solar panels going up and down. We have seen changes having dramatic impacts on the insulation industry. We are trying to build a steady, stable platform that is accessible across the schemes and across the country. We are focused on 2030 but the long game will ultimately run to 2050. We are at the early part of that journey. I would like the opportunity to come back before the committee at whatever regular interval it wishes to report on how we are progressing on that journey. However, as we have referenced a few times, we are pushing into a sector. As the Chairman mentioned, we are close to economic full employment at the moment. We are pushing into a construction sector that is seeing constraints. There are constraints too around the education and health sectors, and any other sector one cares to name. We are working in that frame.