Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister, Deputy Ryan, said the Government was only warming up on these schemes. I can tell him the residents in the flat complexes have been forgotten about and they are freezing and terrified. The condition of the vast majority of flats is very bad. Dampness and mould as a result of poor insulation is rife in many flats. The flats in Mercer House, Pearse Street, Whelan House, Rathmines and many council-owned houses are in a disgraceful condition. Glover Court, as the Minister knows, was supposed to be retrofitted many years ago but, like many plans for the flat complexes, it never happened. In 2022 the flat complexes are like wind tunnels given the unacceptable condition of the doors.

One could fit one's hand through many of the old wooden doors that are basically unusable and then the windows are rattling and creating a wind tunnel. The flat complexes need to be prioritised for insulation. We need to increase the funding for local authority flats and houses. Sinn Féin's alternative budget would do this.

Equally, we need to see retrofitting prioritised for the flats. There seems to be an attitude that the flats do not matter - that they will be last and we will get around to them at the end. I can tell the House that if it was not for the ordinary working families living in the flat complexes, there would not be a front line during the pandemic. Households living in the flats such as Macken Villas and Beech Hill Villas kept the front line going during the pandemic.

A wealthy household can get €25,000 of taxpayer-funded grants for a deep retrofit, while households living in the flats cannot access this. To make matters worse, they would be waiting for years for decent insulation from their landlords, that is, Dublin City Council. Residents need a plan that is fair and is rolled out to those who most need it. Sinn Féin's plan will do that.

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