Eminent speakers such as Eamonn Smyth and Sean Armstrong from Department of Environment, Community and Local Government; Paul Kenny from Tipperary Energy Agency; Pat Barry from Irish Green Building Council; Alan Carr from Passive House Academy; and Helena McElmeel from Helena McElmeel Architects shared their expertise and highlighted the current scenario of retrofit practices in Ireland. Researchers from NUI Galway were amongst others who shared their ongoing researches on the nZEB-Retrofit project, carrird out under principal investigator Dr. Jamie Goggins (Senior Lecturer), and funded by Science Foundation Ireland.

   The symposium covered different themes addressing concerns of standardisation, economics, technology and showcasing varied completed and ongoing retrofit projects. The negligible support of banking and financial institutions towards the retrofit practices was drawn out as a major concern. Also, the difference in the measured and actual energy performance of retrofit projects highlighted the need for more accurate measurement systems. Moreover, little acceptability at the end user due to limited knowledge and lack of information was identified as the prime concern. The symposium thereby initiated a potential collaboration between the industry and the researchers paving a way for achieving the common goal of nZEB 2020 given by European Union Directive 2010/31/ EU (Energy Performance of Building Directives recast).