Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister knows, thousands of homes throughout the country are in urgent need of proper insulation to bring them up to an acceptable energy rating standard. Dublin City Council has been involved in an extensive programme to retrofit its housing stock and bring those homes to a reasonable energy rating. This has entailed insulating attics, fitting heat pumps, doing wrap-around insulation or pumping insulation into walls, and changing windows and doors where necessary. This has proved to be very successful, particularly as many of the houses that needed urgent retrofitting date back as far as the 1950s.

The construction of some houses using precast concrete slabs, as is found in housing estates in Finglas south, has caused serious dampness and mould. This has health implications for the residents and large energy costs because of the gaps caused by the deterioration of the sealant used on the joints of the slabs. The external wrap-around insulation has eliminated much of these issues by sealing these gaps. Solid walls require the wraparounds while other types of walls, such as double leaf, are pumped.

There is less of an incentive for those in private dwellings to retrofit their homes, however, because they have to pay a substantial amount of the cost of such retrofitting. The Government's plans to increase grant funding for such works from 30% to 35% at present up to 50%, as outlined in the recently launched national retrofit plan, will not incentivise those who are on low pay.

The issue that really concerns me is that under existing rules, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, allows for only one visit to the residence for works to be carried out regardless of how minor these works might have been. I am aware of quite a number of cases across the constituency of Dublin North-West in Ballymun, Finglas, Whitehall, Santry, Glasnevin and so on. In many instances, only minor works were carried out and residents were refused a return visit. I have dealt with examples of such cases whereby works to add insulation were carried out ten or more years ago and anyone today who had such minor works done is being refused further works.

I am currently dealing with a particular case that illustrates the absurdity of the current rules when applying for retrofitting works to be carried out in a residence. This is one example of many and concerns an elderly gentleman living alone in Whitehall who is on a pension and receives fuel allowance. He had his attic insulated ten years ago. He is currently in rehabilitation in hospital but will be returning home in the near future. His house dates back to the 1950s and would require wraparound insulation and an upgrade to the heating system, among other measures, to bring it up to an acceptable energy standard. His request for works to be done has been repeatedly refused because the SEAI is adhering to the Department's rule that it carries out one visit per home. This senior citizen will return to a cold home and high energy costs he can ill afford as he tries to heat his house. It has been promised since 2017 that this rule would be reviewed but to date there has been no movement on this issue. I urge the Minister of State to ensure that this matter is resolved and included in the Government's national retrofitting programme.

See this speech in context