Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are taking the deep retrofitting of schools very seriously. This is why we have launched an initial pilot between my Department and the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment in conjunction with the SEAI. One cannot use the word "modest" when one is talking about €30 million, which is a lot of money, but in the bigger scheme of things where one has 4,000 schools, €30 million will only do X number of those schools but we are looking at ways of ensuring that we do the proper deep retrofitting of schools because as I said earlier, students are demanding. Young people in these older schools are asking questions around climate change, are looking to their immediate environment and are asking why they are sitting in an environment like it. It goes back to choices. It goes back to the choices we must all make as politicians and the Deputy will recall the difficult years from 2011 through to 2016. Trying to deep retrofit all these schools in one go cannot happen but we must provide a pathway and instill confidence in young people that we are committed to it.

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