Over the weekend the Tánaiste stated he was exploring one-off payments towards environmentally friendly energy measures such as heat pumps and efficient cars. I welcome the fact the Government is giving consideration to how it can do more to protect households and how it can make them more energy efficient and cut their bills. However, when it comes to offering new grants there is a problem with floating an idea and then taking a long time to deliver on it. If there is talk of additional financial supports coming down the track, no one will buy an EV or invest in a heat pump when they think something extra is coming down the line. If the Government is not planning to introduce these new measures until the budget in October, the Tánaiste's remarks risk pulling out the rug from under new EV sales and new heat pump sales over the next six months. Will the Taoiseach confirm when households will know what are the new energy efficient measures the Government is proposing to bring forward, and when will they be able to get the benefit of them?

To be fair to the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, he has already brought forward substantial improvements to retrofitting measures. The heat pump system grant, for example, now totals €12,500. He expanded this grant and increased it substantially by up to €6,500 for a heat pump. He did that last February. He also introduced measures on central heating upgrades and a new €2,000 grant. There are increased grants for attic and cavity wall insulation and attic insulation top-up grants for first-time buyers. There is the windows and doors measure in particular. By the way, the take-up has been quite significant with regard to the numbers in the first quarter availing of the attic and cavity wall insulation of up to 80% of median cost and up to 100% for first-time buyers. There are already substantial measures and a lot of people are availing of them. There were huge increases in the numbers in the first three months.