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

A number of questions were asked and I will answer them in reverse order. That would be the handiest way to do respond as I can cover both Deputies' questions.

The better energy warmer homes scheme is not operated by my Department and I cannot give the Deputy details on it. I will ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Bruton, to contact Deputy Harkin about it. Our Department is involved in the scheme and draws down funding for the social housing aspect of it.

Deputy Harkin asked what changes have been made to the scheme. The report that came out this week has been discussed at length today when it was raised by other Deputies. The study was carried out approximately a year ago but the report was only published in the past month. We made changes on foot of the audit statement issued a year ago because it was common sense to record the building energy rating of a home before starting work. That seems like a simple measure but it was not done. That was changed. The issue with the report was that one could not judge if a retrofit had improved a house because the BER was not recorded before the work started. The BER is now assessed before and after the work, which should solve that problem as we will be able to monitor the benefits of the scheme.

The Department's use of the better energy warmer homes scheme in the early years was for low-cost interventions of approximately €3,000 per house under phase 1. While these did not deliver major changes, they did bring some changes. Phase 2, which has been well funded, provides for increased interventions costing more than €22,000 per house and should deliver much better results. Apart from that, €3 billion has been set aside for retrofitting social and public housing in the coming years. This is an important area.

Deputy Harkin referred to solar energy and the renewable electricity support scheme. My Department does not handle the relationship with the ESB on connections but I will raise the matter with the Minister, Deputy Bruton. The Deputy is correct, however, that the scheme needs to be made easier to work with. Changes have been made over the years but the scheme needs to be constantly adapted.

I am responsible for regulations on micro-energy and exemptions. I gave a commitment a couple of times in the past year to bring forward new exemptions to facilitate microgeneration and solar power infrastructure on farm buildings, houses, etc. Those regulations are being worked on and we are close to being able to bring them before the House for discussion and implementation. They should make things easier. I am committed to microgeneration. I have visited Güssing in Austria, which I believe the Deputy also visited some years ago. This small district shows what can be achieved with microgeneration and how to bring the community along. We should encourage more of that and we will do so.

I will have to believe Deputy Connolly that there is no biodiversity officer in Galway. I do not know whether a person has been appointed but I will check for the Deputy. I want to be clear on this. As a councillor, the Deputy was a director of Galway and her colleagues are also directors of local authorities. Councillors need to ask those questions and do their jobs because they are directors of the company that runs the county and city, as are Deputies in this place. We will disagree on some matters but we will certainly agree that councillors needs to do their job as directors. I cannot answer for every person who is employed by a local authority but what I will say is-----

See this speech in context