The State is investing, and has invested, significant sums in retrofitting schemes. In the programme for Government, €8.7 billion is earmarked for investment in the retrofit of up to 500,000 homes between now and 2030. Thankfully, supports are available under the home energy upgrade for people on lower-to-middle incomes, who account for approximately 17% of households in the State. However, there is a gap between affordability and the grants awarded by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland or under any other scheme. Can the Tánaiste outline the Government's proposals to bridge that gap to make it more affordable for middle-income families to upgrade their homes and thus reduce their carbon footprint and energy costs?

I thank the Deputy. As he mentioned, we have ambitious plans to retrofit as many as 500,000 homes between now and 2030. This will be hard to do, particularly at a time when we need to build hundreds of thousands of new homes as well, but we are determined to press on with both objectives.

I am not as up to date on the issue as maybe I should be, but I know some work is being done on a loan scheme for people on middle incomes and people who do not qualify for the means-tested payments. People could use the savings that arise from retrofitting and reduced energy costs to pay off the loan. As I said, work on that scheme is under way at the moment.