Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

They are just as important. Every home matters.

I have met and listened to Professor Kevin Anderson, who is an eminent, articulate and compelling advocate for stronger climate action, and I would not ignore for even a moment the warnings and analysis that he presents. His analysis is scientific and fact based and deserves to be heeded. I believe I met him briefly at the Paris climate conference. In terms of where the world is today, the Paris Agreement is the legal construct within which we are best placed to try to achieve the protections Professor Anderson seeks. One can argue that matters are not moving quickly enough or that the targets need to be more ambitious, but the structure that was agreed when those 200 countries came together - Glasgow is glued into the five-year review structure, with a stock-take in 2023 - is our best chance of protecting the planet from runaway climate change. People can differ over what is the path to achieving the agreement's climate objectives, but it is the right international legal structure for us to follow.

The improvement of people's homes is a practical way of reducing emissions, improving health and addressing fuel poverty, which is increasingly an issue because fossil fuel prices are so volatile and expensive. We will be undertaking a review and an effective relaunch of the SEAI grant system in a new national retrofitting scheme, which I hope to announce and deliver shortly. It will build on good work. In the budget, I believe we agreed €109 million for the warmer homes scheme next year. That funding is 100% targeted at people on low incomes. There is an extensive report on it. There is a backlog and people are frustrated that it takes so long, but that is partly because it is such a successful and welcome scheme. It is not on its own. In the budget, we agreed something like €85 million for the retrofitting of social housing. That needs to ramp up because it will only upgrade approximately 2,500 houses to B2 grade or higher. We have committed within our Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act to reaching a 51% reduction by the end of this decade. That will require a figure of 500,000 homes, as this Oireachtas committee agreed collectively.

I spoke about learning by doing, changing and adapting. The SEAI will do that. We have approximately €5 billion in funding coming from the carbon tax to help pay for it. That is significant and welcome. We have additional loan facilities that will help to lower the cost by in or around a half for those who are borrowing to pay for their home improvements. That will be significant. We will increase the grants for others outside the warmer homes scheme and social housing scheme to ensure that some of the cost is covered by the State. The main constraint is not budgetary, but the work required to deliver projects. I believe it was Ms Patricia King of ICTU who stated that we would need something like 27,000 construction workers to move into this area this decade. Getting apprenticeships and workers in place is the key constraint. If we can do that, then we will be able to consider the various schemes and how they might best be rolled out.