Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I have a slight concern about the demand-led versus a targeted approach. The SEAI is wearing the SDG's payments well. Dr. Byrne knows that one of the central aims is to try to reach the furthest behind first. I was out in Dungarvan recently at a place called Congress Villas, which was named after the Eucharistic congress that was held here in 1932 or 1933. The villas are nearly 100 years old. I looked one of them up on a property website. They are G-rated. There is no heat in them. Whatever coal you put in the fire, the heat goes straight out through the roof, the chimney or whatever. Yet, when I knocked on the doors, I found that people's awareness of where they should be going for these things was not where it needs to be at. I have a slight concern about getting E- or F-rated homes, or even D-rated homes, ahead of others in the queue. Really, we should be trying to focus in a targeted way on the lowest performing properties first. I asked representatives of the Department of housing at a meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts for an overview of the energy rating of social housing stock, and they were not able to give it to me. This is stock that the State owns. They were not able to tell me that X% of the stock is G-rated and X% is F-rated.

Ideally, I would like to see those resources directed there first. I have a slight concern about the demand-led approach. The SEAI is asking people to apply for schemes. I get it. People are ready and are in a position to apply. They feel ready to take it on in their own lives in all the rest of it, so the SEAI is pushing at an open door there. However, are we doing enough to specifically target what we know are the worst performing homes? Notwithstanding rural stock and one-off housing which is much more difficult, we can certainly look at our towns and cities. Taking the example of Congress Villas, which were built in the 1930s, we know that all of those houses are going to need some intervention of some kind. Are we being proactive in that way in the targeting of resources?