Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his comprehensive reply. He referred to the past 17 years in the context of this programme. Should we not take a more aggressive approach to school renewal projects by using all available resources in order to ensure that there is energy saving, that value for money is secured and that oil and other fossil fuels will not be burned unnecessarily in order to provide heating. Have we adopted an approach that is sufficiently aggressive? The Government should be providing leadership in local communities by showing that this can be done with school premises. People would then learn that they can do it in their houses. We need to get that message across. We need to work far harder on this issue.