I also acknowledge our guests. They are most welcome to Seanad Éireann.

I will speak for a moment about the warmer homes scheme and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI. I was contacted recently by a lady who had applied for support from the warmer homes scheme. She was looking at getting some attic insulation done and getting some upgrades to the energy capacity of her house. She submitted all of the application forms to the SEAI and got back in the post a letter that said in 12 months' time somebody would call out to see what could be done for her house and to carry out a survey. When the Government put €640 million into this scheme last year, nobody should be getting a letter saying that in 12 months' time somebody will call out to their house to do an inspection. Ultimately, when that inspection is done the work is identified but the work is not done and will take another 12 to 18 months thereafter.

At a time when families are under pressure, when the cost of fuel and the cost of oil has gone up so much, along with the cost of gas to heat people's homes, and when we have the Government putting this money on the line, we need more accountability from the SEAI. If it is the case it then comes back to say it cannot get the contractors in order to do these works faster, then we will have to have a whole-of-government approach to putting more apprenticeship schemes in place so we can train up more people who are able to deliver these schemes. With the vast amount of taxpayers' money going into this scheme and the vast number of people who are applying for this scheme, for good reason, then we must have better accountability. Nobody should be waiting and getting a letter in the post that says in 12 months' time somebody will call out to do an inspection. I encourage the Acting Leader to ask the Minister for energy to come before this House and give us some details on what exactly is going on with the SEAI and with these energy upgrade schemes, and to see what can be done in this year's budget to ensure this is not rolled out across the country the way it currently is.