Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 12 September 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Third Report of the Citizens' Assembly: Environmental Pillar

10:00 am

Photo of Grace O'SullivanGrace O'Sullivan (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I agree that there is a task to communicate properly and that we are failing in this regard. We have failed in this in recent years and that is why we have the problems with which we are faced.

Mr. Coghlan referred to retrofitting. A CSO infographic I have in my possession highlights the fact that between 2015 and this year the heating market in new builds has remained dominated by gas, and that there is little evidence of a shift towards passive house standards, despite the opportunity presented by significant house construction. What are we going to do? There has been retrofitting, but it seems that this involved the installation of gas heaters in many instances. Does this mean more retrofitting into the future? Mr. Stanley-Smith referred to the retrofitting of his house and the energy efficiency improvements he has made. During the summer, I looked at the Tipperary Energy Agency. Demand on it is so great at present that it cannot provide services to the numbers of people who are requesting the type of retrofitting Mr. Stanley-Smith had carried out. What will we do in that regard? We have this huge problem whereby the agency is doing the right thing but it does not have the resources. We are seeing all these barriers obstructing initiatives of this nature.

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