Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Collins for raising this matter and share her concern on the need to address the issue of inadequate insulation and draught proofing in older local authority housing stock. Given the constraints on capital budgets across all areas of the public service, my Department is now placing greater emphasis on local authority social housing improvement programmes to improve living conditions and comfort levels for tenants. The enhancement of energy efficiency standards remains a priority within my Department.

As Deputy Collins has said, the grants under the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland scheme are for private houses only and fall within the remit of my colleague, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte. In the past, funding for housing maintenance programmes was provided from the local authority's own internal capital receipts. However, with the decline in internal capital receipts, funding has been provided from my Department for the retrofitting and improvement of the housing stock, particularly with regard to energy efficiency measures. Under my Department's social housing investment programme, local authorities are allocated funding each year in respect of a range of measures to improve the standard and overall quality of their social housing stock. The programme includes a retrofitting measure aimed at improving the energy efficiency of older apartments and houses by reducing heat loss through the fabric of the building. Again, as Deputy Collins has pointed out, over the past two years, the retrofitting measure focused on improvement works to vacant houses, known as "voids", with the objective of returning as many as possible of these dwellings to productive use and combating dereliction and associated anti-social behaviour. Over that period some €52.5 million was recouped to local authorities in respect of improvements carried out to 4,774 dwellings. Deputy Collins is correct that these were "voids" and were not occupied houses.

I am currently reviewing the terms of the energy retrofitting measure for 2013 to target grants at those older houses and apartments which lack adequate insulation and draught proofing. Local authorities should pay particular attention to dwellings which accommodate older people and people with disabilities. My Department will issue revised guidelines to local authorities in the context of the capital allocations under the housing programme for 2013. Work is under way in this regard and my Department requested local authorities to submit details of their capital requirements under the various measures within the housing programme. This information is being assessed at present and I intend to advise individual authorities of their capital allocations as soon as possible.

The retrofitting programme offers a very practical and cost-effective way for local authorities to improve the standard of their housing stock. The programme brings immediate as well as long-term benefits for the community as a whole in terms of sustaining and creating jobs and delivering a greener Ireland for the future. The programme also reduces peoples' energy bills, which is a very important consideration.

It is clear to me that we need better information to give sharper focus to the overall national improvement works programme and to better target resources at areas which will give the best return on the investment made. My Department, in conjunction with the local authorities, has now commenced an audit of the 130,000 social housing units. Over time, this will build up a comprehensive profile of the stock and enable the compilation of planned housing maintenance programmes locally and the development of targeted strategies to address deficiencies in terms of thermal efficiency and so forth. Next year, I intend to use the results of the audit to inform the capital allocations to local authorities.

In the last two years the emphasis was on vacant houses with the objective of getting them back into use. I have specifically asked that now we focus on occupied houses. In many cases tenants have been in place for a long time and have maintained their homes as best they can but they have serious problems with dampness and so forth. Once again, I thank Deputy Collins for raising this issue.

See this speech in context