Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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We are all aware of this happening. There was a departmental retrofitting scheme under which up to €35,000 could be provided for a void house to bring it up to a BER rating of C1. It was said units might have been left for that reason. This year we changed the scheme to allow the money to be used in occupied houses too. It was considered that it was not fair that a local authority tenant who had maintained his or her house during the years was not eligible for the grant when a new tenant walked straight into a repaired house. There is no longer a requirement for the house to be empty for a period. There is a new scheme which is worth €2,000 per house which is for the insulation of walls and attics, as well as other small draught-proofing type jobs in the least energy-efficient houses. We are encouraging local authorities to take up this scheme. We expect to cover 5,000 houses this year.