Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Ba mhaith liom aitheantas a ghabháil don Rialtas fá choinne na scéime seo. Tá gá mór léi agus tá sí práinneach agus de dhíth chun rudaí a insliú agus pumpaí teasa, fuinneoga agus doirse nua a chur i dtithe. Guím gach rath ar an Aire Stáit sa jab tábhachtach atá aige agus sa dualgas atá ar féin agus ar an Rialtas. Beidh práinn ann ó thaobh an one-stop shop. Sin an rud is mó anois.

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, for the work he has put into this scheme. It has been worked on quite comprehensively in recent months. The most important thing now is to get the tendering sorted for the one-stop shop. Already our offices are receiving calls from people who were involved in previous schemes, including insulation schemes. They have the information but do not have the authority to give accurate information because they need to go through a tendering process. That is critical.

There is another element that also needs to be considered. It concerns those in receipt of domiciliary care and the carer’s allowance, who would qualify for the scheme. However, there is an issue with the BER. There is an anomaly whereby those whose houses have a C rating will not qualify; I think it has to be a D rating. The anomaly lies in the fact that many of the houses would have got their attics and walls insulated. It is important that they not be precluded from the 80% grant owing to the showing of initiative in recent years. Even though the windows and back door may be hanging off, the BER will be a key consideration if we are not to discriminate against people who find themselves in this position.

On another issue I wish to raise, could the Minister of State clarify the position? The original criterion referred to houses built before 2006 but the year has now been changed to 1993. That will affect many houses.

I presume we are ready to roll out the tender process for the one-stop shop. It must be initiated as a matter of priority.

May I raise the issue of the mica scheme, which I realise I will be raising in the next hour as a topical issue? There is a great opportunity to incorporate the retrofit scheme into the schemes for houses with mica and pyrite. Many of these houses were built in the past couple of decades. If the householders did not have a problem with mica, they would be going out to replace their windows and doors. There is a hard-to-believe argument that the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications is trying to push for people to build houses under the old criteria, or the 2007 standards. The 50 mm of insulation required in 2007 has changed to 100 mm. Expecting homeowners who are to rebuild their houses or do the outer leaf to go back to 2007 standards does not make any construction sense or common sense. There is a way of assimilating the retrofit scheme into the mica scheme to cover circumstances where you are building a new house or replacing the outer leaf. I appreciate that the Minister of State, Deputy Malcolm Noonan, and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, have set up a working group to investigate this issue. What needs to come out of that is that we do not impose unnecessary bureaucracy on the mica homeowners, who are going through a very difficult time dealing with the stress. We need to give them a win such that the equivalent of whatever they would get under a retrofit scheme if their house did not have mica would be made available to them, without the bureaucracy, hardship and frustration associated with having different rules for different Departments. We are looking for collaboration and cross-government support on this issue. I realise I will be getting into this in more detail in the next hour with the Minister of State, Deputy Malcolm Noonan.

Arís, gabhaim aitheantas don Rialtas fá choinne na scéime seo. Labhair an Teachta O’Donnell faoi na daoine uilig atá de dhíth chun an obair seo a dhéanamh ar na tithe. Níl siad ann. Tá siad de dhíth chun na tithe a bhogadh ar aghaidh, tithe príobháideacha a atógáil nó tithe úra a thógáil. Tá brú ollmhór ann anois mar gheall ar an éileamh do dhaoine chun bheith ag obair ar na tithe agus an obair seo. Dá mbeadh aon bhealach, aon deis nó aon smaoineamh ag aon duine chun daoine, daoine óga ina measc, a fháil tríd an tír nó taobh amuigh den tír, sin an rud is mó.

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