Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I hope the Minister is not saying that waiting times of 20 months are in any way acceptable. These are not just green environmental measures we are talking about. They are a perfect example of environmental measures that improve people's lives, reduce carbon emissions and bring down bills. We are talking about some of the poorest households in the country. I refer to working families on poverty wages who get the working family payment, carers, single parent families, people with disabilities and pensioners whose incomes are low enough to allow them to qualify for the fuel allowance. These are the people who are living in energy poverty right now and who are faced with a choice between heating and eating on a daily basis. They cannot afford to wait almost two years for these energy upgrades. The vast majority of people who get work done under the warmer homes scheme say it is great. It is exactly the sort of environmental measure we need, but we need more funding. What the Minister has outlined is not a sufficient increase. If we are getting twice as many applications as are being dealt with at present, increasing the funding by 25% will not get on top of it and we will continue to have extremely long waiting lists.

See this speech in context