Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I agree with Deputy Martin Ferris. It is undoubtedly the case that there are people living in the circumstances that he described. No doubt he is correct that it has a negative impact on their health, etc.

I can assure him that the grant scheme to which he refers will survive the budget. Together with the jobs initiative announcement earlier in the year, we will have spent some €100 million this year on the retrofit programme, which will have done the job on maybe as many as 60,000 homes with the happy spin-off of providing 6,700 jobs in the process.

If there is not a copy of the Affordable Energy Strategy in Deputy Ferris's pigeon hole, it should be there by tomorrow, as for all other Members of the House. It sets out 48 specific actions with timetables for implementation. All of the evidence shows that it is the poor standard of thermal efficiency in houses that is the single biggest contributor. One can give as much as one likes on the fuel allowance, for example, but if the house is very badly insulated, much of it goes up the chimney. Such efficiency is the priority and we hope to integrate it with the schemes that are there already.

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