Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

I pursued this and I have been informed money is being allocated.

We are at the start of a process and the SEAI is the key driver through its public sector partnership scheme. The authority has working groups relating to water services, public lighting and ICT energy use and they are seeing savings of up to 20% in the organisations with which they have worked as a result of the additional resources we have provided.

It has taken longer than I would like but the staff embargo was one of the reasons for that. We have overcome that and we are looking at providing further staff to the SEAI to allow it to get on with it. I would have liked to have done that sooner but the Department of Finance officials and others had to make sure we had the staff and resources available. However, we are making resources available at a time budgets are being severely cut and it is difficult to recruit staff. I am prioritising investment in the SEAI and energy efficiency because it saves money from the State's viewpoint. I stand over the savings in this regard in my Department as practical and real examples of helping the taxpayer cuts his bill.

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