Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is right to draw attention to the value of these schemes and also to point to the fact that there has been a decline in the number of applications this year. However, she is wrong in somehow persuading herself, as she has done in the question, that it is due to a lack of continuity. Whatever it is, it is not due to a lack of continuity and it is not the case that the pay-as-you-save scheme was ready before we went into government.

The scheme is still not ready. It is a complex issue. In any event, we did not want it to be ready because we are still operating a grants-based incentive scheme for people to insulate and retrofit their homes so they make energy savings, and as Deputy Catherine Murphy said, that they can live in their homes with more comfort. I accept the grant was moderated this year, but it was done because the price of doing that kind of job is now less than it was three to five years ago. We are trying to ensure that the money goes as far as possible. I remind the House that I invested an additional €30 million into the scheme last year. Far from cutting it, we put in €30 million extra in the jobs initiative in the middle of last year. A total of 5,500 people were supported last year.

I suspect what the Deputy is really interested in finding out is the reason for the apparent fall-off in applications. That is her net point. I am interested in it too. I find it difficult to come up with experts who can provide a reason. Two major reasons have been advanced. The first is that last year there was a particularly mild winter. Anytime there is a particularly harsh winter such as the two previous ones, there is a spike in demand and then it falls off. The second reason is the recessionary climate where people are reluctant to put their hand in their pocket. Even if one gets grant funding one still has to fund the work by a factor of 2:1. If one gets a grant, for example of €4,000, one is expected to come up with €7,000 or €8,000 to do the job. In the present climate people are reluctant to spend that kind of money. That is one of the advantages of the pay-as-you-save scheme. The idea of the pay-as-you-save scheme is that householders are not expected to put money upfront. They repay it from the energy savings that have accrued over a period. We must try to make the product attractive to the householder.

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