Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

This is a crucial area of public policy. Although Deputy Barrett does not believe in the schemes, I am not going to say Fine Gael, as a whole, does not. Fine Gael dealt with the issue well enough but Deputy Barrett seems to doubt the benefits of the house of tomorrow scheme and others. These schemes are beneficial because they turn our economy to a new energy future. One of the reasons demand increased is that energy prices increased. In spring this year, there was a significant increase in demand under the greener homes scheme and a higher percentage of applications were turned into grant commitments than previously.

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