Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This week the Climate Change Advisory Council said it is unlikely that the first carbon budget will be met. Nowhere is this Government's failure clearer than in its national retrofitting plan. That plan is unfair and regressive. This week Irish Rural Link joined a long list of organisations, including St. Vincent de Paul, Social Justice Ireland, Friends of the Earth, the Irish Heart Foundation, and Sinn Féin, that have highlighted the need for a fundamental reorientation of the national retrofit plan to ensure those in greatest need are prioritised. For its part, Sinn Féin has set out a fairer retrofit plan. Importantly, the Government is way off its own targets. A total of 500,000 homes are to be retrofitted to BER B2 by 2030 but just 35,000 or 7% are completed at this stage. Approximately 400,000 heat pumps are to be installed by 2030 but just 9,643 or 2.4% have been installed to date. The national retrofit plan is unfair and it is not working. Will the Government accept this and overhaul it?

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