Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)

I accept there is a need to simplify the process because it seems to me there was a lack of planning in that some news reports said householders were told to roll back or change their retrofitting efforts on the basis that they were in breach of planning permission. Only 355 loans have been approved over the last year. If the average loan is about €48,000 that is only €17 million which is far from the game-changing results we were promised. Again, the high concentration of loans going towards the east coast has led to far less uptake in the rest of the country when that is factored into it.

The Minister of State also mentioned solar. The lowest income homes seem to be locked out of the solar revolution. Will the Minister of State take any steps to try and make the retrofitting more affordable, to tier it and to target specifically people in rural areas, older people who use more solid fuel rather than, as Social Justice Ireland said, a wealth transfer?

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