Ms Michelle Murphy:

On retrofitting plans for homes owned by local authorities, in our submission we advocate for this to be significantly increased. It would be a very productive way for the State to begin to meet its climate targets. Local authority homes are owned by the State and retrofitting would increase the value of that asset. Also, I am sure retrofitting could be done at scale given the knowledge attained by local authorities. One of the issues around retrofitting is the ability to scale it up, thus reducing costs. Local authorities should be in a position to do this. Retrofitting should be a priority for the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage because not only is it going to reduce emissions, but it will also increase the health outcomes for those households while addressing the issue of energy poverty within local authority households.

We have not had any engagement on this solidarity contribution. We are concerned about that given the lack of consultation on the packages to date. Also, a large volume of resources has been spent on a one-off credit. We have pointed out, like the ESRI, the OECD and others, that it was not well targeted. As I have pointed out, for that volume of resources, a lot more could have been done for those households that are in the bottom 20% of the income distribution and are being most impacted. Obviously the tariff will not be ongoing as the expenditure is a one-off. We would hope that there would be engagement with the sector, and with organisations working with these households and families, to look at how best to use this money. We do not know what the split will be between SMEs and households but there needs to be a better way to do this than just a one-off credit for households.