Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will try to answer the Deputy's questions as quickly as I possibly can. On the last point, I totally agree with a pay-as-you-save scheme for the retrofits. That could be run by the State or some energy companies offer the same thing as well. A retrofit target task force has been set up across all the different Departments looking at how best we use the allocation of €3 billion over the next number of years to deal with this. Hopefully they will report quite soon, and the next Government, whoever may be in it, can make the decisions about how best to do that as well.

Deputy Boyd Barrett referred to apprenticeships and changes there. Thankfully, a number of years ago we made major changes around the whole apprenticeship model and the offer of apprenticeships. We have seen a massive uptake of apprenticeships across many different sectors, along with nearly 40 new types of apprenticeships. There is a major opportunity there to convert people over, upskill them, have skills conversion and so on, to be able to tackle housing retrofitting. Regardless of whether it is State or private, it can be done. I totally agree with the Deputy on that as well.

To be honest with the Deputy, I do not do spin here because we cannot. If I sit here, I have to speak on behalf of my Department and it is all on the Official Report of the Dáil, so I do not do spin. I do not like it when Deputy Boyd Barrett constantly says that but he will keep doing it and I will keep defending against it. Factually, however, whether he likes it or not, it is proven that there are over 10,000 new social houses in the system this year. The Deputy is obsessed with one form of delivery, one form of build. My obsession is with getting people family homes. I am not obsessed with who builds them but with getting them. Since we started Rebuilding Ireland over 100,000 families are now in homes that they would not be in if we were doing Deputy Boyd Barrett's schemes because that many would not have been built. The Deputy keeps saying he does not want HAP and the private sector but he has never given me a solution for the more than 40,000 families that are HAP houses today. Where would they go tomorrow under Deputy Boyd Barrett's scheme if those private houses are not used in the short term, while more houses are being built?

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