Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wish to talk specifically about the retrofitting of houses. A very good report was issued by Age Action Ireland in respect of the need for a new energy poverty strategy. The existing poverty strategy is out of date, as I think we all know. I hope to get a sense from the SEAI of where it sits in respect of ensuring scarce resources are deployed in a manner that ensures those people who are on very low incomes and who live in fuel-impoverished houses can be targeted in a way that makes sure the resources flow down to those who are most in need. The new national retrofitting plan, which is part of the climate action plan for 2021, has a target of bringing 500,000 homes to a B2 building energy rating by 2030. Our guests can question my figures, but we know that something like 18,400 retrofits were completed in 2020, approximately 4,000 of which raised the homes concerned to a B2 standard. We must, of course, take the pandemic and the associated challenges around meeting targets into account.

That was challenging in terms of meeting targets. I want to get a sense from SEAI, from a corporate point of view, whether it sees its role as one that ensures it is not just people with means who take the lion’s share of the grants available for retrofitting because right now that is the case, and we can argue justifiably that that is the case. I want to make sure we have a system in place that ensures people who are fuel impoverished and who are on lower incomes get a greater chunk of that grant aid.