Dáil debates

Tuesday, 20 September 2022

National Retrofit Plan: Motion [Private Members]

 

7:00 pm

Photo of Gerald NashGerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Retrofitting is the low-hanging fruit with regard to reaching the State's emission targets and future-proofing energy security. As the Minister will be aware, in 2017 the built environment alone accounted for 12.7% of Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions. To put this into context, the average Irish dwelling emits 104% more than the EU average. This is not a record we can be proud of. This has come about not only as a result of our reliance on more carbon-intensive fuels, but also due to the poor quality of insulation in our homes, which is another legacy of the Celtic tiger, cowboy builder era. It can also be attributed to a failure, in more general terms, to upgrade older housing stock over the years. As it stands, more than 80% of Irish homes and other buildings have a BER of C or worse. This is an astonishing figure.

It is estimated that 70% of current buildings will still be in use by 2050. Even if every new building and home were to be carbon neutral, this would not be sufficient to meet our targets, such is the number of properties with poor energy ratings. If we are to build a carbon-neutral Ireland, we will need nothing short of a massive State-led retrofitting programme over the next decade. Frankly, there is little sign of this. There is no real sense of a national campaign. There are bits and pieces here and there - a piecemeal approach - but no indication of a national town-by-town and street-by-street effort. The lack of such an effort was baffling a year ago and it is even more puzzling now, given what energy-impoverished households are facing into this winter. We need a national effort and campaign.

Aside from the urgent need to retrofit homes from a climate perspective, there is a double imperative with the current cost-of-living crisis. We know that energy prices are only going one direction, which is up. Reducing our consumption of energy on a household, business and national level will be key to helping to bring bills back down. Home insulation can be a win-win. Deep retrofitting has the dual impact of lowering emissions and reducing energy bills for households. It also creates good sustainable green jobs in our communities. It is a no-brainer of a policy which one would think the Government would be absolutely eager to adopt and embrace, as it would be the kind of real national campaign that the challenge we are facing demands.

One would think that the kitchen sink would be thrown at this but experience tells us that has not been the case to date. The energy-efficiency retrofit budget for local authority housing was a mere €85 million in 2022. This clearly is not the overwhelming national priority that it ought to be. Based on an average cost of €36,000 per unit, an extra €100 million would be required to ensure 5,000 homes are progressed next year. When some construction inflation is factored in, the package would probably need to be brought up to close to double that, or approximately €185 million. This should be the absolute bare minimum that we need to hear from the Government on budget day. Even that would not go anywhere near the scale of the ambition required, and nor would it go far enough fast enough. In contrast, my party has proposed how 100,000 homes could and should be retrofitted on a street-by-street basis each year. That is at least the level of ambition we need.

We know that cost is a major barrier to undertaking retrofitting work, as others have articulated during the course of this debate. While the national energy upgrade scheme now offers grants of up to 50% to 80%, this is no good to most working families who just simply cannot afford the initial upfront payment and all that involves. As it stands, they are struggling to make ends meet, with soaring prices and stagnant wages. They simply do not have €10,000 or €25,000 in savings to carry out a deep retrofit under some of the current schemes. Put simply, they are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They earn too much for the warmer homes scheme but not enough to afford major upgrades. They do not have the means to fork out the high cost that grants such as the one-stop shop schemes require. In the meantime, their gas and electricity bills continue to rise out of control. Too many households like this across the country are experiencing energy poverty but are excluded from free energy upgrades. It creates a lose-lose situation out of what really should be a win-win situation.

In contrast, the Labour Party is calling for a retrofitting programme targeted at those households earning under €50,000 and with a BER of B2 or below. We are also calling for a form of carbon credit, through the tax system, to help working families that do not qualify for most supports such as fuel allowance and the household benefits package. We also need to be conscious of other groups in the design of retrofitting and energy-saving schemes. This winter, energy prices for homes which are old and protected will be hit with extortionate energy bills. Homes such as these are excluded from retrofitting incentives and adequate fuel supports should be targeted at them. Likewise, there will be many people living in rented homes where the landlord is unwilling to apply to the one-stop shop for the various schemes. It is unfair that such people should have to face an effective rent increase due to the rising cost of paying for their fuel and energy bills. Those living in older apartment developments with managing companies that are uninterested in retrofitting require imaginative support too. The chronic apartment defects issues highlighted over recent years require support.

People who are experiencing those problems require additional support and we are looking forward, in the context of the budget, to see what the Government has in mind for that cohort of people. The mistakes of the past should not be repeated and a more proactive approach by the State will be needed in such cases.

We also need to see a faster, simpler and more streamlined application process for the various Government supports and grants. The current application process is too slow, too complex and too costly. That has been my experience when advocating for people in Louth and east Meath. The so-called one stop shop often consists in reality of visiting many other shops along the way until you conclude the process. As the Climate Change Advisory Council has noted, this red tape must be simplified urgently to assist consumers through the renewable energy process.

Finally, the elephant in the room is the lack of the apprentices and skilled workers needed to deliver the kind of change the climate challenge requires us to see. They are often forgotten from the conversation but without them none of these targets will be achieved; not today, not next year - never. One recent report has stated more than 50,000 construction workers are urgently needed to fill a black hole in the workforce if the State is to meet its housing and retrofitting targets. The Government has set its own target of just 27,500 additional construction sector workers over five years. That breaks down at 7,500 each year. In this context, last month's Core Research report for the construction industry is deeply worrying. It showed 63% of construction companies were struggling to find workers with 46% of industry professionals noting plasterers are rare and very difficult to find, as are carpenters. This is contributing to significant inflation in the cost of construction work and major delays for all kinds of construction projects, be they national, local, regional or simply domestic. Part of the reason for this is the precarious conditions in the construction sector. With the starting rate of pay for apprentices often being half the minimum wage, who could blame our young people for opting out? Let us not pretend we can have a functioning, fit-for-purpose, skilled construction sector while it continues to be so dependent on labour that is to a very large extent dominated by the phenomenon of bogus self-employment. If retrofitting at scale is to become a reality, which is a reality I think all in the House want to see, we will need to see an urgent increase in pay for apprentices to at least parity with the minimum wage in the first year and a sea change in the approach to security of employment in the sector if we are to have the skilled workers to service the ambitions of the retrofitting and housebuilding programme across the country over the next few years.

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