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

We intend to introduce it before the end of this year. It is taking longer than we wanted, mainly because the European Investment Bank is a key partner and it is the first time it has engaged in direct consumer-related lending. We had to change the structure of it to facilitate its concerns.

I will make a wider point. We discussed at length in earlier questions how we go further to meet our climate targets and close the gap. I will give two examples to give people a sense of what is possible. One area for which the Government has hopes, though it will have to deliver policy initiatives to make this happen, is as follows. Among the changes in the world contributing to decarbonisation is a huge ramp-up in heat pumps in homes and industry. There is a real opportunity for us to switch any industry using gas for heating at relatively low temperatures – anything below 120°C – towards using heat pumps. That is an area where we can go beyond what is in the modelling. The second example would turn a challenge into an opportunity by developing facilities here to produce cross-laminated timber and radically scale up the ability for fast modular, offsite, timber-frame construction housing using such timber. In such industrial development policy areas, I believe we can go beyond what is in the existing modelling, which is not in the EPA projections, and deliver on the change.

The real story regarding domestic retrofitting is that area, as the EPA acknowledged, is working. We are seeing an incredible increase in demand for the one-stop shop schemes, home retrofitting and the grant. We need the loan facility to add to that and make sure everyone can access the financing needed to avail of the grants. Retrofitting is ahead of expectation and target.

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