Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on this motion regarding the maintenance and repair of local authority housing. I support the motion and its call to significantly increase funding for a social housing retrofitting programme to improve energy efficiency and reduce energy poverty. However, I note the motion lacks a rural aspect, which is disappointing. Although there is no doubt that significant refurbishments are required to inner city dwellings, many rural dwellings also require significant funding and refurbishment, and this motion fails to address that in any way. I have been contacted by many constituents living in social housing that is not fit-for-purpose, with some living in horrendous conditions. Many are forced to wait long periods before the council is able to fix the problems or find suitable alternatives. In Donegal, this is made even harder by the fact that hundreds of houses across the county are affected by defective blocks.

Everyone has the right to feel safe, comfortable and warm in their own home, but many are deprived of this and many more struggle to heat their homes given continuous hikes in fuel costs. There is no doubt that we need to transition to a zero-carbon economy to ensure a better future and quality of life for everyone in the world. However, it is understandable that people, in particular those struggling to make ends meet, are apprehensive about this. This is because the average citizen is often expected to take the biggest hit for this transition. This is extremely unfair and completely unjust.

I have called on the Government many times to ensure that we are moving towards a just transition. However, that is not what is happening. Rural Ireland gets a bad rap for not caring about the environment, when nothing could be further from the truth. Many in rural Ireland work directly with the land and sea and care very much about the well-being of the planet, but many are also just trying to make ends meet. The truth is that sustainable energy in this country is limited to those who can afford it and contributing positively to the environment is limited to those who can afford to do so. The Government has made this the case and then wonders why rural communities are not getting on board with retrofitting, electric cars or the ban on turf cutting.

For many in rural Ireland, cutting turf is a cost-effective way of providing a source of heat and cooking for their homes, and for some it is an income. Anyone who spends a day in the bog will tell you the amount of work that goes into this. There is a reason that people across rural Ireland engage in this intense and heavy work for days at a time. It is because the alternatives are unaffordable. After the crash, in rural Ireland it was noticeable how many people went back to turf cutting. It was not the love of working on the bog, that is for sure. It was because they could not afford to heat their house without it; it was that plain and simple.

It seems that the Government has a real lack of understanding. Although I recognise the need to ban turf cutting, this heat and income source has not been replaced. Instead, people were forced to pay significant amounts for retrofitting and the ongoing cost of electricity. Government grants, like many other grants across housing, are limited to those who can already afford the costs. This makes a just transition difficult.

The energy transition process in rural Ireland has been overwhelmingly negative and the Government wonders why people are so against climate policies.

The just transition has become synonymous with job losses and lower living standards in recent years and the public is against the Government's climate action policies because of this.

I agree that good housing policy is not only about the number of homes delivered but the quality of those homes and the quality of life of those living in them. People should be supported and funding should be provided to enable them to make the necessary energy changes to their homes. The Government has a particular responsibility to ensure, through funding for local authorities, that those living in social housing have good quality homes. It is also important that the core policy of the Government is to guarantee access to affordable, sustainable energy. That will be achieved by breaking the link between electricity and gas prices. That would make it more realistic and we would see people across the country embracing renewables. The reality is that people cut turf because they cannot afford anything else and they do not have another affordable heat source. That is the problem. We are asking people not to cut turf and telling them to pay for electricity to heat their houses but they simply do not have the money. That is what it is about. There is no doubt that anybody who goes to the bog does not do so for the love of it and I know that from personal experience. People go to the bog because they cannot afford the alternatives. That is the reality and we have to make sure that people have an affordable alternative.

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