Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the fact that waiting times are being reduced but to bring them from 26 months down to 19 months is not ideal. We need to go further. The Minister of State has explained that this is a great scheme. It has the money in it to deliver what is needed by people who are in fuel poverty. The problem is with the expectation that has been created by the scheme. The design of the scheme is fine. The application form itself is very simple, a three-pager. Everything is fine until they get the acknowledgement with the reference number on it, which says it can be up to 24 months. People can feel deflated and ask what it is all about. I welcome the fact that additional staff and money are being put in place. However, we need to engage with local contractors to get works done. Under the framework the Minister of State is talking about, I think we have central purchasing and all that. We have people coming from Cork up to Galway to carry out work and all this kind of thing. Is that even environmentally friendly? I would suggest that we use more local, smaller builders to carry out these works and to try to spread the workload across the country.

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