Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We are in the midst of a cost of living crisis and there is no doubt about it. I hope to see thousands of people on the streets of Dublin on Saturday. The cost of food has increased, as have the costs of energy, renting and home ownership. With a view to energy saving and reducing our energy consumption, retrofitting homes to make them more energy efficient is a positive idea but it must be offered at an affordable rate to all households. We cannot exclude anybody. The better energy warmer homes scheme is not working for many of those who have applied. A total of 9,000 homes await the works, with a wait time of up to 27 months in some cases. It is not working for those on lower incomes who simply cannot apply as they are not on the specific social welfare payment. Those in local authority homes are not benefiting with only 1,584 local authority homes retrofitted in 2021. It will not happen for those waiting for the local authorities to do a retrofit. Those of us who have been members of local authorities know exactly what they will do.

The one-stop-shop scheme is beyond the affordability of many citizens who simply do not have the savings to commit to retrofitting. Expanding this and, importantly, delivering a progressive retrofit plan is a necessity. It will deliver social and economic benefits for citizens while helping us to meet our emissions reduction targets.

The motion sensibly calls for orientation of the retrofit plan towards those who have the greatest need for retrofit. These are those most severely impacted by energy price increases. Our proposal calls for an assessment of household income as a means of deciding what percentage of the retrofit is covered. The area-based approach in our proposed scheme would allow for homes in close proximity to be retrofitted at the same time, delivering savings and lowering costs. It is nonsensical to have some homes in an area covered and others not.

As part of the Limerick regeneration programme a commitment was made to retrofit houses in the four regeneration areas. The 2014 regeneration implementation plan committed €4.7 million to retrofitting homes in these areas. Unfortunately, here we are almost ten years later seeing no rhyme nor reason. Some houses have been done but others on the street have not while others have been skipped or excluded. I do not have faith in it.

A failure to deliver will condemn more of our vulnerable citizens to the unenviable choice of deciding whether to heat their homes or use that income for other vital needs. In his contribution the Minister said the Government is scaling up the capacity and competency of the local authorities to deliver higher targets. I would like to know exactly what money he will give the local authorities. If he does not give them funding they will not do anything.

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