I want to talk about the SEAI warmer homes scheme, which I think we all agree is a very good one. Unfortunately, in many cases it is taking over two years from start to finish with this application, which is too long. As many people who could benefit from this scheme are vulnerable people, two years is obviously a very long time to be waiting. Over the past few months I have been contacted by many councillors who have helped people with these applications. They are concerned that the applications are taking so long to process. I suggest that we ask the Minister to come here to discuss the scheme. We need to ask him to engage with the SEAI to speed up the process. Shortening the process by even three or four months would make a big difference.

Surprisingly, I was going to raise the same issue as Senator Murphy O'Mahony. Yesterday there was an announcement of a 96% increase of households applying for home energy upgrades compared with the first three months of 2025. That is 29,000 applicants for home energy upgrades. This is on the back of a €640 million investment in budget 2026, €558 million of which is coming from the carbon tax. We have a target of 73,000 houses to be upgraded this year and we are well on our way to hitting that target. There is a clear and obvious upward trend and demand for this.

At the same time, as was pointed out, we all know the delays with the warmer homes scheme and a study has just been published by the south east regional skills forum. This identified that plastering apprenticeships are facing a severe shortage now. Currently, there are 25 plastering apprentices training in the country. About 12 graduates per year are being produced. We are talking about externally wrapping houses, either in the warmer homes scheme or with the energy upgrades, but how will we ever meet the demand if we are not producing the skilled craftspeople?

This is something I have regularly raised in this House and called for. The reason for delays in the warmer homes scheme is there is not the manpower on the ground to do the work. The money is there for all these houses and for the local authorities to draw down.

In the recent public consultation committee in this House, I called for Ireland's apprenticeships to address regional skills gaps and future workforce needs. We need to ramp that up and press it forward and that is something we can do within this House. Plastering is just one area but the skills gap is there for many other apprenticeship needs at the moment. We are creating and funding policy that is creating this demand. We need to look at that and ensure the apprenticeships are there to deliver on it.