Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 23 May 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Energy Poverty: Discussion

Photo of Brian LeddinBrian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party)
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I want to ask about the tension between addressing energy poverty and decarbonisation. Earlier, we spoke about the carbon tax. The view is that carbon tax is important but it should be fairly redistributed. The balance of social homes are to be retrofitted by 2030 and 10% of the 500,000 homes will be retrofitted to a BER standard of B2. Does this pull against the decarbonisation challenge? Is it known whether 10% is an optimal figure?

If, for example, that is pushed to 20%, 30% or 40% - many of these social homes are smaller and might have a lower heat load and a lower carbon impact than bigger homes, which are not social homes - might that make the decarbonisation challenge harder? Has any analysis been done? Where does that 10% come from?