Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will take the Deputy's comments to the Minister and discuss this with him. I take the Deputy's point there is a real problem for these stone houses. As he says, they are likely to be lived in by people who could be in energy poverty, people who are older, people in remote locations in rural areas and so on, and this needs to be addressed. That is why the guidelines are being worked out.

As the Deputy acknowledged, these houses are different and they need different treatment. We need guidance for the people who are carrying out the retrofit work. We had experience a decade ago of retrofit work being done by people without sufficient guidance. They tried to put in the insulation or do the work and we ended up with buildings that did not improve in energy rating.

In this case we have a specific problem about moisture and the risk of it being locked in and houses being damp, and so on. One can insulate very heavily and end up in a situation where one is trapping moisture within a house. That work on the guidance must be done and it is expected it will be complete by the end of the year. I will mention it to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. I accept where the Deputy is coming from on this, though I want him to accept the Government's plan for retrofit allocates the majority of the funding for retrofit of housing to initiatives with zero cost to the homeowner and targeted specifically at people either living in local authority housing or on welfare payments.

The majority of the more than €350 million funding for this year and the more than €500 million for next year will be targeted at people receiving 100% grants. This is an energy poverty measure and it needs to be targeted. One of the primary duties of the Government is to keep people warm in their homes in the winter, particularly those who are having difficulty paying for heating.

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