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

I thank the Minister of State for his reply but I have to say, while it is useful information, it does not address the issue I am raising here today. My sense of things is reflected anecdotally and I can give some examples in my own area. A lady contacted my office who moved into a new one-bedroom unit in December. Her first energy bill for six weeks in the house was €615. That is in excess of €100 per week. I met one resident in a complex in Donacarney in east Meath who talked about being under severe stress due to very high energy bills. That resident realised that five or six of her neighbours were in the exact same position. There was a bill of €415 for a month in which a resident had not even taken up the tenancy. This is type of thing with which we are dealing. I have bills here from them of more than €2,000. Arrears accrue significantly and stress accrues to the same degree.

For me, the issue is a combination of the installation and operation of these systems. There needs to be increased oversight in this regard. I am not satisfied with what the Minister of State has said here. In the first instance, I call on the Minister of State to conduct an audit of the heat pumps that are installed and their operation and to talk to energy providers, and St. Vincent de Paul and others, to see if there is an intersection between heat pump installation, whether correct or incorrect, the operation of those and very high bills.

On the education piece, I have seen it time and time again whereby people give the key to the house and walk away. There has to be ongoing support around the use of heat pumps. It is not enough to say it is a new technology and that people should not touch the system and should leave it alone. That is not enough but that is all some people are getting.

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