Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I could not let the opportunity pass without putting on record my praise for Deputy Durkan and his very impressive contribution. I can only imagine now that he has gone to the Minister to tell him about his Pauline conversion to investment in social housing and all the great things we can expect to see over the next period. I say this with the greatest of respect to Deputy Durkan, as his was a very impressive contribution.

Energy efficiency measures in the built environment are what might be termed low-hanging fruit in reaching our stated European Union emissions targets. The Minister of State knows the built environment accounted for 12.7% of Ireland's greenhouse gases in 2017 and retrofitting our domestic housing stock will be a fundamental part of building a new and sustainable economy. Even if every new building constructed from now was carbon-neutral, Ireland would still fall short of the emission reduction targets unless the existing building stock was upgraded comprehensively. Specifically, it is estimated that 70% of current buildings, many of which were built before the introduction of regulations relating to energy efficiency, will still be in use in 2050.

Currently, the average Irish dwelling emits 104% of the EU 27 averages, mainly as a consequence of reliance on more carbon-intensive fuels. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, such emissions from homes were projected to increase by 14% over the 2018-20 period under the "existing measures scenario". This, however, may increase further due to Covid-19 and the increased number of people staying at home for longer periods. As it stands, over 80% of Irish homes and other buildings have a building energy rating of C or worse, and under the stated transition plan these will need to be brought to a B rating or cost-optimal equivalent. In short, we will need a massive State-led retrofitting programme over the next decade, as the House would acknowledge, to get our emissions from the built environment down to more sustainable levels.

The Government's own climate action plan has set a target of 500,000 retrofits by 2030, which is an average of 50,000 per year, with most backdated to the second half of the decade. However, with all due respect, we know the Minister of State's party has a habit of missing and revising targets, and this target does not go nearly fast or far enough. For example, the cross-party climate action report signed up to by the Minister of State's party suggested increasing retrofitting to 75,000 buildings per annum.

The Climate Change Advisory Council recommends that 100,000 homes per year should be retrofitted, a target that we ensured was contained in my party's recent general election manifesto. Does the Minister of State have plans to revise the current target upwards? Would he expect to see that target being revised upwards in any new programme for Government that may emerge?

The quality of retrofits and the delivery model is just as important as the quantity. In this regard, I ask the Minister for his response to the recent EU Court of Auditors report referred to by Deputy Murnane O'Connor which was highly critical of the Government for failing to target EU funds towards projects that are "most likely to realise energy savings". The report specifically singled out the Better Energy Warmer Homes scheme in the Irish case, as referred to earlier, stating that energy ratings did not improve in more than half of the households renovated by that scheme in 2017. That is a troubling indictment of the Government's capacity to deliver the required retrofitting programme but it is hardly surprising given the track record and the piecemeal approach that puts the reliance almost entirely on the private market which fails to deliver either cost or energy efficiencies. In contrast, in our manifesto, my party committed to rolling out a public retrofitting scheme to all local authority housing as was advised by the chair of the Climate Change Advisory Council. Through this street-by-street approach, homeowners could avail of subsidised home insulation while local building contractors would be able to benefit from the efficiencies of scale in terms of price and delivery. Given the EU Court of Auditors findings, will the Minister reconsider, and does he expect the next Government, to reconsider the current delivery model?

Regarding funding, the transition statement states, "The revenues from the increased carbon price will also be used to help to achieve the aggregation of retrofit works called for in the Climate Action Plan." On that issue, I bring to the Minister of State's attention a public consultation of which he will be aware that carried out last year by the Department of Finance on the issue of how to utilise carbon tax revenues. As he may be aware, the consultation process found that, "The predominant view ... is that the additional carbon tax revenues should be ring-fenced for the purposes of enhancing the current SEAI grant scheme for household energy efficiency improvements ...", while the option of returning the proceeds by way of dividend as initially proposed by Fine Gael, and the Green Party, received a negative response overall. Can the Minister confirm if he expects the next programme for Government to commit to ring-fencing revenues raised from carbon taxation for the retrofitting of homes, as my party has proposed, or will he revert to the dividend model as initially promoted by some parties in this House but on which some of them now appear to be back-tracking?

Finally, as John FitzGerald has stated, there is an urgent need to increase the capacity to deliver the necessary retrofit programme without it impacting on the delivery of increased numbers of houses. As stated earlier, this Government has overseen a national housing crisis and, consequently, building affordable and more public homes has to remain a top priority for the next Government. The elephant in the room, however, is the chronic labour shortages in the construction sector which have driven up costs and delayed the speed of delivery of housing and retrofitting projects. According to the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, SCSI, and PwC Ireland construction and market monitor for 2019, 80% of survey respondents reported shortages of plumbers, carpenters, bricklayers and surveyors while more than 60% cannot get enough electricians and civil engineers. In 2019 alone, more than 40% of Engineers Ireland's new members came from abroad, something that has been described as unsustainable by the director general of Engineers Ireland, and even more so now in the context of Covid-19 and all that flows from that.

There are also an insufficient number of apprentices coming on-stream. I know that is an area in which the Minister is particularly interested, as I am also. For example, only 30 people registered for apprenticeships as plasterers in 2017, and I do not believe the situation has improved much since then. That is in part due to the uncertain career opportunities provided by our current apprenticeship model as well as the low pay which prevails.

Covid-19 has presented us with an opportunity - to use the unfortunate phrase - to kill two birds with one stone and go some way towards solving our unemployment, housing and climate crises in one strategic swoop. I have repeatedly called for a new deal for a new generation as part of our Covid-19 economic recovery plan. That would, could and should include State-backed training and employment in climate apprenticeships to deliver a just transition to a new sustainable society.

More than 100,000 new, long-term, local jobs could be created as part of a large-scale, State-led retrofitting programme and zero-emissions home building programme. As a State, we should have this kind of ambition. It is the kind of ambition our young people expect to see from this House. Has the Minister of State held any discussions with the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection or Minister for Education and Skills with regard to the shortage of construction workers and how Government intends to address this shortage?

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