Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

There is a range of other measures and supports. There is grant support of up to 50% to allow householders to do that. However, we made a conscious strategic decision to move away from the old system, where it was typically small measures that were provided and when a house might have to be visited three, four or five times to get it up to the standard we want. We deliberately decided to focus on really making the home efficient to help people out of fuel poverty and to improve their health. We decided that the whole range of works that could and should be done would be done in one visit. The strategic decision we made was to go into deep retrofitting and to really address the issues with houses. The Deputy is right; there are many households waiting for works under this scheme. That is because it is incredibly popular. It is highly successful. We will show further flexibility. The SEAI is showing further flexibility in a whole variety of different schemes. However, the basis strategic decision to go in and do a proper full-on job and to focus on that was the right one. We will use other measures to support householders and to help people out of fuel poverty, the issue we will address through the next question.

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