Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

When the SEAI goes into a local authority estate - typically two-up-two-downs and small terraced houses - it does the deep retrofit. I am thinking of a particular estate of maybe 35 local authority homes and 25 private homes, with gaps in between. The pensioner in the middle is still in the same situation as they were 20 years ago. The house on each side has been externally wrapped and heat pumped - the whole lot. What can be done in such cases? The loan situation for someone who is on a pension of a couple of hundred euros per week does not suffice. They will have huge energy costs, relative to others, because a huge part of their income will be going on energy. That is before we mention the carbon emissions, etc. What is being done? Are any incentives being offered where there are those gaps?