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

Like many urban settings, Dublin North-West has a mix of dated and modern accommodation. Over the years, there was a great expansion of areas such as Ballymun, Finglas, Santry, Whitehall, Glasnevin and Meakstown. These areas saw substantial growth in housing estates, which contributed towards rapid growth in the population of north Dublin. Many older houses in such areas were constructed of brick or cavity blocks, and insulation was not even a consideration at the time of their construction. Houses these days are generally built to a high energy standard and require little work, if any, to improve their energy efficiency. Older houses, be they private residences or council owned, are the houses in most need of retrofitting. Their method of construction results in excessive heat loss through the walls and roofs; therefore, heating the house is both inefficient and costly to the resident. There is an urgent need for old housing stock to be brought up to a satisfactory building energy rating, BER, of at least B2. These houses will require a deep retrofit to bring them up to an acceptable energy standard.

Studies have shown that Irish households consume more energy per household than the EU average. This is a direct result of a poor standard of construction that leads to poor energy efficiency. Retrofitting will result in improved energy efficiency and lower energy bills, which is becoming an important consideration in the face of escalating domestic fuel, gas and electricity bills. However, the rising cost of living means that many households on low incomes and people with privately owned homes will be less likely to be able to afford retrofitting. In particular, a cohort of homeowners are stuck between not qualifying for free upgrades and not being able to make use of the 50% matching grant support as they would not be able to afford it. Renters can also be adversely affected as many face high energy bills because some landlords do not upgrade their properties or are unwilling to incur the costs associated with retrofitting. No protections are in place for such circumstances.

I would also like to highlight an inefficiency with the retrofitting programme itself. It is ridiculous that the funding for the retrofitting works programme for Dublin city will stop in October and will not resume in April, resulting in months lost waiting on next year's scheme. It also means that contractors can be left without confirmation of future contracts, and the council can ill afford to lose such experienced workers.

There must be more joined-up thinking when councils are working in an area. There are cases where a row of terraced houses gets wraparound insulation but a single house in the middle does not because the residents had bought their property from the council. This is inefficient, costly and displays a degree of inflexible thinking.

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