Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The reply refers to the retrofitting of 500,000 homes by 2030, which is a significant and welcome target. The problem, however, is that I received a previous reply from the Department which stated that over a three-year period, 305 homes benefitted from deep retrofitting grants provided by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, which is a minuscule number in the context of what we are trying to do. I flag that to the Minister. It is a fantasy to say we will retrofit 500,000 homes if we are only doing 100 homes a year now. Even if we were to retrofit 10,000 homes a year, it would take until 2069 to get to 500,000. That is the scale of the challenge we face.

Support schemes are one thing, but I highlight to the Minister also the issue of apprenticeships and training. In his current role and in his former role as Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton has told me the private sector was not taking up apprenticeship and training schemes. We accept that. The question is what we do about it as a State. We must intervene to get the skills in place. They are not there in the building industry at the moment.

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