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

Like many urban constituencies, particularly in Dublin, mine, Dublin North-West, has a mixture of modern and newly built housing in addition to old stock built decades ago. Areas such as Ballymun, Santry, Whitehall, Glasnevin and Finglas have seen a huge growth in population and corresponding growth in the number of housing estates. A substantial number of these estates were built in the period up to the 1970s and 1980s, having started in the 1950s. This was a time of great expansion in these areas. Houses of this period, which in most cases were structurally sound, are difficult to heat. Their primary heat source was a fire in the living room, which often had a back boiler linked to radiators around the house. In the past, they did not even have that; they just had fires. While this was the traditional way to heat a house, it was, and is, inefficient. These days, new housing estates are generally built to a high energy standard. It is for houses that were built decades ago that retrofitting is essential and does a lot to improve energy efficiency. In their current state, they do not retain heat. Excessive heat loss in a home is inefficient and costly to the residents.

The longer a house can hold heat, the less fuel that is needed to keep it warm. Therefore, there is an urgent need for old housing stock to be brought up to a satisfactory building energy rating of at least B2. The old houses will require a deep retrofit to bring them up to an acceptable energy standard. Many of the residents of the houses have raised families in them and are now senior citizens. They are also the people who are most in need of upgrading their houses to make them more energy-efficient. They cannot afford what it costs to deeply retrofit an old house. That is why a national retrofit plan is so important. However, to be successful it needs to target those most in need. While I welcome the national retrofit plan, I regard it not as a solution to our current energy-rating problems but as another step in the process of bringing our old housing stock up to an appropriate energy rating. Unfortunately, the national retrofit plan is constructed in such a way that it does not go far enough to include those who are most in need of a deep retrofit of their homes but who can least afford it.

It does not go far enough to include those who are most in need of a deep retrofit on their homes and who can least afford it. Dublin City Council's retrofit programme for its tenants is working very well. It is magnificent. I have seen the results of it in Finglas south and across the constituency, but it needs to be accelerated. It is quite clear that the council does not have enough money. That is something that needs to be urgently addressed with the local authorities. The SEAI has stated that new forms are coming out. They must be made available as quickly as possible. For people who were applying for a second fit, the time will not be taken into account to look at those. That is unfortunate because over many years a lot of people had applied to get other works done. Some got an attic done or otherwise. The second fit will be done and instructions have been given, because the Minister told me this the other day, but I worry that they will not be dealt with quick enough.

See this speech in context