Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This simply is not working. The Minister of State will probably say that he was going to stand up and say that anyway. However, I know that it is not working on the ground. The people of my constituency are telling me that retrofitting and the warmer homes scheme are not working. The funny thing is, if we go back 15, 16 or 17 years to when the Government rolled out the scheme initially and it was done through community alert schemes, it delivered. I was on the community alert scheme at the time; I was not a politician. It delivered door to door and it got attics insulated. Unfortunately, funds are not there to do a proper insulation package for houses today. The people who got that little bit of insulation that time are punished today because the current scheme makes sure that they cannot now get their homes insulated because they got a little bit of insulation perhaps 15 or 20 years ago. This scheme is completely outdated and does not work. People who want to get their homes retrofitted are waiting two years, which is far too long. The Government stated it could bring that down to a year. I am waiting for that.

People on fuel allowance are able to qualify. I accept that and that is great. However, there are people who are just €1, €5 or €10 above the fuel allowance threshold and are falling between the stools. They cannot afford their fuel but they cannot qualify for a fuel allowance because they have a pension or whatever. However, they might have a lot of payments coming out of that pension. That has to be looked at if the Government wants to do something.

The Green Party is trying to make people suffer. Certainly, I can feel that. Having been at the ploughing championship today, I would say to Members from that party that they would want to stay away from it, to be quite honest. There is strong ill feeling towards the Green Party out there at the moment because it is not delivering.

I met representatives of the hotel sector last week. They told me they want to put in solar panels. Centra, Musgrave and other shops want to that as well. However, they will not even apply for the grant because it a complete failure. The Government is failing to do the very thing it should be doing. It needs to look at delivering a proper retrofitting and warmer homes scheme that suits and fits everybody.

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