Ms Issy Petrie:

This is the sort of service we have been advocating for for a while but it has become very critical at the moment and will only get more important as climate action continues, and the energy landscape changes. We see this as a clear priority and an urgent innovation we need to see at the moment. There are a few different ways it could work. The priority for the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul is that it is local and tailored. There has to be an element of flexibility in meeting the person where they are at within the service. That is why it is so important that it is local and embedded in the community somewhere so that people know where to go to access support and people can be connected in and reached out to within the community. It could work in a number of ways. Some of the key bodies that would need to be included are local authorities, the SEAI, the local MABS office, the local social welfare office, different kinds of housing providers and electricity suppliers. These are all the different bodies that could be included and the community energy advisers would link into these.

In terms of who leads it, there are different ways that it works elsewhere. There are a few different models in particular that we have looked at in the UK. There is a service in London that sits within a local authority but is accessed and works across different local authorities but the expertise is within one local authority. There are situations elsewhere where it sits within a community organisation, so there are options.