Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming before the committee, and I thank them also for their opening statements. I will focus on promoting good public health. I will give the witnesses a bit of background. In my constituency of Kildare South I am aware of some poorly insulated homes under the local authorities. There are some that are okay in terms of insulation and retrofitting, but for those with mould problems it is often suggested that they leave their heating on as a means to deal with the mould problem. For obvious reasons, such a solution is no solution at all, as we are all aware. Not only would it be incredibly costly for the households, it would not help with our climate goals if people are leaving the heating on, day in, day out, to combat mould.

I was in a particular house in my constituency recently with such a problem. They had the heating on all of the time but it did nothing to stop the mould, which was climbing up the walls. One can imagine that the presence of mould often contributes to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and especially in older people. I am the Sinn Féin spokesperson on older people so I would be dealing with a lot of older people who are living in very badly retrofitted houses.

In the witnesses' opinion, what additional steps could be taken by the Government to facilitate local authorities in retrofitting the stockpile of local authority housing?