Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I did not interrupt you. I sat and listened to your rhetoric and I ask you to allow me to lay down some facts.

I have acknowledged the part Mr. Paul Kenny has played in this. I do not think there is anybody better out there to recommend and advise the Minister on this scheme, which ticks all of the boxes of sustainability and sustainable development. The three pillars of sustainability are economy, community and environment. I will try to outline why I believe that to be so.

In terms of economy, this scheme will create thousands of jobs, and we all know that. We are recruiting people, setting up centres of excellence and increasing the number of apprenticeships available. My nephew recently started an electrical apprenticeship with a solar company and asked me for advice as someone who served an apprenticeship many years ago. I told him to be careful on the rooftops installing solar panels and that he had decades of good, well-paid and clean work ahead of him. That is also the case for the thousands of plumbers, electricians, carpenters, plasterers and general builders we will need not just to build 33,000 homes per year but to retrofit the 500,000 homes that the Government will fit.

A range of schemes will be applicable to everybody. Nobody will be left behind, because that is key to the Government's message on climate action. This is climate action. We will leave nobody behind. A range of measures are available. The Department has significantly increased the number of homes that will be addressed under the warmer homes scheme. Deputy O'Rourke did not get those facts right.

Economically, this scheme stands up in terms of the work that will be created. We will harness offshore electricity from our wind power. There are steps in place to do that, and the Government is firmly committed to that and will meet our targets. We will electrify our heating systems and transport in this country, and we will create thousands of other jobs in those areas, apart from the retrofitting scheme.

In terms of community, this scheme stands up. Many people across the country are living in cold, damp and draughty houses. Our standards in building were not great for many years. Ventilation in houses was provided by draughty poor workmanship for many years. We need to tighten that up and ensure that those people are looked after first, including those in fuel poverty and whose health is being damaged year after year by living in cold, damp and draughty houses. We will address that.

There is a 100% grant in place for people in receipt of certain social welfare protections.

We will meet that target and make those houses fit, habitable and comfortable for people to live in. That is the community aspect of this. The environmental aspect is clear to everybody. We rely so much on imported fossil fuels in this country. We see the geopolitical situation which is driving energy prices through the roof. The smartest thing that any Government can do is to think beyond the five-year electoral cycle and to think ten, 20 or 30 years ahead, and about what we can provide for the children who are coming after us. We should provide a housing stock so that those children grow up in healthy, warm, comfortable housing, where the bills are not so high that parents cannot afford other things for their children. The Government is laying out a long-term sustainable plan, which is what the Greens do. We think ahead. We do not think about the next two or three years and what is popular or not. We think long-term. We think about sustainable energy and retrofitting, which is exactly what we are doing with this scheme. Despite all the criticism, it is a good scheme, which will work and will deliver. It is backed by finance. It will offer low interest loans for people who wish to avail of them. There is a range of opportunities for every household to avail of warm, energy-efficient, cost-efficient, comfortable, healthy housing for themselves, their children and future generations.

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