Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for appearing before the committee to talk us through the Revised Estimates. For the record, I am in the Leinster House complex. My question relates to subhead B4, the sustainable energy programmes. In 2019, there was a target to improve the energy efficiency of 24,500 homes but just 23,000 were achieved. There is a target of 23,200 homes for 2021. Does the Minister know what the outcome was for 2020? I have concerns because the programme for Government refers to having at least 500,000 homes retrofitted by 2030. If our annual targets are about 25,000 per annum, the Government will obviously fall far short of the target. I understand there have been significant delays because of Covid but it seems the programme is finding it difficult to ramp up.

I will give an example of a lady in my constituency of Wicklow. She is a pensioner who applied in April 2020 for the retrofitting scheme and was finally informed on 31 August 2020 that she was eligible for the scheme. She has not yet been visited by a surveyor. We made contact with SEAI on her behalf and were told it would be 24 months before this lady will even be visited by a surveyor, not to mention get the work done. Her electricity bill for heating amounted to €900 in February. She is trying to do the right thing and to reduce her energy use, and she needs to because the cost is exorbitant and is making life uncomfortable for her, but she is facing a three-year wait before this is done. How does the Minister foresee the programme being able to ramp up to ensure that the needs of people who are trying to do the right thing will be met?