Mr. Seamus Boland:

I thank the Cathaoirleach for the opportunity to be here with my colleague, Ms Louise Lennon. We are a part of Irish Rural Link, IRL, which was founded in 1991 and the main aim of which is to allow for sustainable living in rural Ireland. We worry a great deal about those experiencing disadvantage and poverty. We have approximately 600 members who are actually community groups and, cumulatively, that can go to a much higher number. They represent the basic membership of IRL and we are in every county.

We welcome this opportunity to address the committee because we have made many statements about energy poverty, particularly as it applies to rural areas. Energy poverty has always been associated with low, inadequate income. Over recent years, other factors, such as location, tenure, household composition, era of construction and the type of fuel used are also considered to contribute to energy poverty rather than the opposite. The recent energy crisis highlighted the vulnerability of low-income rural households to high energy prices, with research showing that these households were most at risk of poverty. These households have always been at risk of energy poverty. The size and nature of the housing stock, especially older housing, make rural households more vulnerable. We must accept that the housing stock in rural Ireland is a lot older. Up to 80% of the housing stock was built before the 1980s. A high percentage is much older than that. It is housing that is almost impossible to heat without serious renovation.

We are going to talk about a group of approximately 100,000 households. I will give the committee some of the background even though we have supplied it. We did some community engagement programmes in 2013. We went directly to over 100,000 households that we estimated as being in poverty, an estimation later confirmed by the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI. Approximately 400,000 rural households still need help in respect of energy. That needs to be said.

There are still many households with no central heating. Census 2022 figures showed that over 21,000 households had no central heating. There is still a high dependency on peat, including turf, as the main source of heat in the homes of almost 68,000 households. This is higher, at over 28,000 incidences, among households whose occupants are over the age of 65. Almost 7,000 people over the age of 65 are living in homes with no central heating or with no heating at all. This should be of grave concern to the committee and requires immediate action. People have died as a result of hypothermia. There were approximately 36 such cases last year, if I am not mistaken. That is how serious the situation is.

IRL welcomes the retrofitting programme but believes a more targeted approach is needed if we are to tackle seriously the crisis of home heating before us. In 2023, under the fully funded energy upgrades scheme, only 13,983 applications were received. Given the scale of the problem, one would expect more applications. Only 5,898 properties have been upgraded. Those who promote these schemes talk about a 140% increase but one can do the maths in respect of a 140% increase on two. We stick to these numbers. Only 5,898 properties were managed and prioritised. Targeting these households as well as the worst performing homes first, by prioritising older homes with a building energy rating, BER, of E, F or G on the waiting list, must begin to happen.

Many of the barriers that existed when retrofitting first began are still in existence. Those include a lack of awareness and knowledge, and the cost of retrofitting. The average cost to bring a residential property from an E1 BER to an A3 BER is a minimum of €42,000 and we know those figures can reach as high as €64,000 and, in some cases, €80,000, as I am sure my colleagues know. The figure for retrofitting can be higher depending on the state and age of the house. There is a lack of competitiveness in the building industry and the biggest problem is finding a tradesperson to offer a quote. Without competition, prices are at the higher end.

We would like to make a number of recommendations because we are not just here to complain. We believe that raising awareness is a major issue. We held some roadshows, one of which was attended by Deputy Naughten, including a famous show in the Hodson Bay Hotel in July two years before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Everything is measured by reference to the pandemic. The Deputy will remember that the Hodson Bay Hotel on a very hot July day was packed with rural people who wanted to know more about retrofitting and how to transition their homes to more sustainable heating.

We did a number of those roadshows at the time, supported by the SEAI but, unfortunately, that support is gone. We are a voluntary organisation and we depend on the support we can get. We believe that programme should still be in operation. The only way to reach people is not through the Internet or emails, it is through physical meetings held in places. The Hodson Bay was absolutely jam-packed on a very hot Friday afternoon.

We also advocate physical one-stop clinics. We are talking about rural Ireland, which thanks to the Government, is getting broadband but it is still not there. We are also talking about a population which, due to another Government programme, is involved in training on computers. This is an age group that is still learning how to manage computer programmes, the Internet, and all of that. In rural Ireland, we are talking about a population that still wants to talk to the people on the ground who are either delivering programmes such as those delivered by my colleagues here or other programmes. Any time we hold these regional meetings we are inundated with people looking to know more. We do these community engagements on a regular basis. I will come to them in a moment. We did some on social enterprise last year, again in rural parts, mainly in the Cathaoirleach's constituency, as well as in other constituencies. Again, there were packed houses for each of them. Irish Rural Link knows how to do this.

We proposed a community energy outreach programme to the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications in 2022. This programme would be similar to previous community outreach programmes we have delivered, such as one on the digital switchover for the TV and one on the delivery of Eircodes. We also did a massive programme during Covid. We delivered volunteers on the ground in every single parish in the country. We visited more than 100,000 households. Each of those programmes was documented in an independent report.

We did some surveying in recent weeks in advance of today's meeting. We asked members if they know about the various programmes that are available. The vast majority still do not know. I do not think that is good enough in this day and age. The only way to do it is through community outreach programmes. We proved that with the programmes I just outlined.

Access to finance is one of the big barriers to making it happen. We see a greater role for credit unions. There are proposals out there. Up to yesterday we tried to find out if the European Investment Bank loans are still available. Members of the House may know more than I do but we could not nail down whether or not they are still available. Even when they are available, the one fault is that they are only available through the main banking structure, and not through the credit union structure. Why is that? We are simply asking that question because we believe that will turn off thousands of people straight away because of the complications and the bureaucracy in getting these types of loans and going to the main banking system, which has lost a lot of credibility in rural Ireland. I do not believe that is the way forward. Every credit union should have the wherewithal to start administering those loans immediately. There is a greater trust among rural people in credit unions than in the banking system, and that is the way forward.

We would also argue strongly that while the various grant facilities help quite a large number of the rural population but the 100,000 I mentioned are not helped. Even though you get a grant and it looks good, the reality is that if you have to pay in the region of €60,000 to €80,000 for a house makeover and between grants and everything else you get something like €65,000, but you still have to find the other €15,000 or €20,000. I am afraid that is beyond the means of that particular group of 100,000 people.

We believe that the Ireland of today should be capable of using a mixture of financing and grants to such a degree that the 100,000 could at least expect to avail of this programme. They would still be paying back some of it. They would not be getting it for nothing but they would be able to do so in the security that they do not lose their house as a result of this. From our surveys, people have got to understand that it is a big issue for people if they take out loans that they could possibly lose their house.

There are anomalies in the fuel allowance scheme. We recommend that the income thresholds for fuel allowance for over 70s be reviewed. We think this is essential. We are aware of cases where an older person living alone is not eligible for the allowance because their income is just above the threshold. We would ask for these issues to be immediately addressed. We hope that the committee would recommend another review, bearing in mind the increase in the cost of fuel and that income levels have not risen to any great extent.

We seriously ask for a review of the need for an increase in training and skills for tradespeople. There is a massive shortage of tradespeople, especially in rural areas. I know that from a personal perspective. As far as we are aware, there are only 36 contractors available for the fully-funded warmer homes grant scheme. That is quite a low number by any standards. A total of 36 contractors are available in this country to deliver that scheme. In that sense, we are in real trouble in terms of making the targets that we, this Government, and Ireland Inc. have contracted to and signed off on to address climate change, environmental change and transition.

We welcome our colleagues. We have not met them before. We hope to talk with them and others again. Like all the other entities, Irish Rural Link is committed to bringing the environmental change we need in rural Ireland. Rural Ireland should not be left behind, holding on to traditions that, frankly, are no good for the future. The future is changing the household stock in rural Ireland to be modern, self-sustaining and sustainable in terms of costs and energy. We believe that is the way forward. We strongly ask this committee to regard this as a major crisis. In total, more than 400,000 households in rural Ireland are not fit for purpose and 100,000 of those are seriously not fit for purpose for reasons of income and the age of the stock. I thank committee members for listening to us.