Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Ministers of State and thank them for their time this morning and for engaging on this important topic. In regard to the points made by the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, nearly all the new housing stock is to be nearly zero energy building standard, NZeb standard, which is very important, and has been for the past number of years. In regard to the existing housing stock, the Minister referred to a target of 2,400 retrofits this year. Where are we with that target? Also, the same issues apply for private homeowners versus the local authority housing stock, whereby some of the units are quite challenging to retrofit. I accept that slows the process down. Where the local authorities own groups of housing units together, surely there should be a real emphasis and renewed vigour to try to get those units brought up to standard. Some of them were built in the 1950s or 1960s, or earlier, and are really in need of retrofitting. The target of 2,400 units is low enough for local authorities. We need to be more ambitious than that. We are a few years into it. I accept there are skills shortages. However, the Minister of State might come back on that.

In regard to the derelict and vacant homes grant, that is working exceptionally well. That can be seen both in urban and rural areas. I mentioned before either this or another committee that there is a particular unit in the Dún Laoghaire constituency that has been vacant and derelict for probably longer than I have been alive. Now, under this grant, it is finally being utilised. That is wonderful to see. I note the Minister’s comments about the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, MARA, CEO taking up position in July. That is welcome. In terms of an ask slightly outside of our discussion today I asked about the historical structures fund previously. We need to increase it. There is a greater demand for protected structures to be funded. In the case of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown there is about €130,000 per annum. That is quite small given the fact that so many historical structures are based in that area. I ask that the Department might review that, given the budget negotiations that are about to be undertaken in the coming months.