Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

There is a lot of shaping up to be done. In truth, any underspend this year has been spent on our obligations regarding the European Union renewable heat targets, which we did not meet. We have had to buy our way out of that obligation. I would far prefer that we had spent the money on putting in new energy efficient homes with heat pumps so we would meet our renewable heat targets. There is a huge amount of shaping up to do.

The Deputy is right with regard to the contractors. Perhaps a lot of contractors looked at this in the past and thought it was too small, too stop-start and too uncertain. Now they know that for the next ten years by law the carbon revenues we will get from the carbon tax will be allocated. This will be some €5.5 billion for the retrofitting industry. This is only one of the revenue streams we will need. We will have a variety of schemes and revenue sources, including private financing, that will make this a €50 billion industry in the next two decades.

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