Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My question is on the quality of datasets for measuring energy poverty. I know about the definitions. Do we know the households? Do we know the distribution between urban and rural, working and not working, pensioners and people of working age? Obviously, a number of elements contribute to energy poverty.

I have heard that the SEAI has good information on BERs and the CSO, Revenue and others have indications on household income but that those datasets do not talk to each other. In the meantime, we are out conducting surveys to fill a gap as a result. I know this is a technical issue but it is important to get a clear picture to inform policy in this area. I ask the witnesses to outline their experience of trying to get a handle on energy poverty data in Ireland.