Ms Clare O'Connor:

We agree that the retrofitting of social housing units needs to be front-loaded. Social housing should make up a really large proportion of the 500,000 homes that are to retrofitted to B2 standard by 2030. We have been calling for this for the past year and a half. In September, 42 other civil society organisations across housing, poverty and the environment were very much in agreement that this should be front-loaded. This is one of the reasons we are asking the committee to write to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to ask for increased funding for the local authority energy-efficiency scheme.

Regarding protections for tenants, again, it comes down to a lack of clarity on the retrofitting of the private rental sector. This is why we are asking the committee to ask the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage for a policy statement with a clear timeline for the introduction of minimum BERs and clarity on protection from evictions, or "reno-victions" as they are called, for tenants in the private rental sector.

In terms of engagement with NGOs on the windfall tax, we have not had any engagement from the Government on the windfall tax or the temporary solidarity contribution but we would definitely welcome having input into that. In particular, organisations such as the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which deals directly with people in energy poverty, should be consulted.