Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. There are so many topics that it is difficult to narrow down the ones we really want to go after. I endorse some of the points that have been made regarding the inspections regime and HAP because the tenant is very often not in a position to make the complaints and the notice to quit can arrive following a complaint.

I want to start with the retrofit scheme. The Department provided funding to each local authority last year for local authority houses and €27,000 was provided for a refurbishment to bring the unit up to a B rating. That is €10,000 short of the experience of some local authorities in terms of the actual cost. Was it intended that this was going to be the full cost of retrofitting those homes and how did the Department quantify that?