Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I find this to be an extraordinarily divisive motion. I can barely speak and hold my breath dealing with it because I am so angered. I have no problem with my colleague on the other side of the House who was not present, who joined this House only in 2007 and who can hold no responsibility for the things I will mention now. I am angered that Fianna Fáil would dare table a motion aimed at tackling the legacy of poorly insulated homes. The motion says the programme is "aimed at tackling the legacy of poorly insulated homes". I have my speech from 2006. I could also get my speeches from 2004 and 2003. This problem has been created since 1998 with this Government refusing to implement the insulation requirements clearly coming down the road from the European Community. We acted disgracefully in the Dublin area for those ten years. Since 1998 more than 250,000 houses have been built in Dublin with hollow blocks that would not be used to build cow sheds in counties Kerry, Cork, Waterford or the rest of Munster and would not get HomeBond insurance in those counties. I stand to be corrected but I have checked this time and again. From his background Senator Butler will be well aware that it is extraordinarily difficult to retro-insulate a hollow block house. I built my house in 1971 with hollow walls and it was very easy to retro-insulate that by filling the space between the walls. The Acting Chairman, Senator Phelan, knows well that if one were to try to fill all the holes in hollow blocks one would have to put a million holes in the side of one's wall.

At that time I brought forward a motion, supported by Fine Gael and seconded by former Senator Brian Hayes, to congratulate Fingal County Council on being the first local authority in the Dublin area to introduce the proper standards. The Minister should know that this row went on for ten years. Mr. Gerard McCaughey of Century Homes led the debate on this. He got no hearing from anybody except the Green Party. It was interesting to hear Senator O'Reilly refer to Kingspan, which somewhere along the way bought Century Homes. The company is still at the leading edge of the home building industry in terms of floor, wall and roof insulation and is doing an extraordinary job.

In this city tonight there are young couples who are worried not only about their income levy, pension levy or losing their jobs but for the next 30 years will be paying off houses that will never reach the level of insulation required. If they ever want to sell them on they will lose money. It is a disgrace. I said it two years ago and I will say it now: people should be sacked for it. It is all on the record, every bit of it. In no way do I hold Senator Butler responsible for it. I have raised these issues in the House time and again since 2000. I asked that the Government bring forward the European directive. When the Government saw it coming down the road it did nothing about it.

When it had to do it, the Government brought forward its own proposal so that Ireland developed a new way of measuring energy efficiently to do with heat loss through the roof as opposed to the international standard, namely the cost per annum to heat a cubic metre of space, which is what it should be. The Government rejected that and Ministers came to the House and argued with me that there was no need to do this. Looking back ten years later we know the difference. What we have done over that period is a disgrace. We have condemned young people to live in sub-standard houses on which they will never recoup their investment. This is completely unnecessary.

The Green Party held this view all along. It was only a month in Government when it implemented this. If it never does anything else, it got that implemented. We examined getting derogations from it and trying to avoid implementing it. The last time I said that in October 2006 a Minister of State in the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government went on "Prime Time" and said the reason it was not done was that it would add to the cost of houses for young people. The cost at that stage to bring in the standard of insulation we require, an "A" building energy rating or whatever, would have been €800. Members should listen to this debate again and the amounts of money we are talking about. This €800 would have saved all this money at this stage. Talk about bad economics and decisions and burying people in sub-standard housing. It is a disgrace and it was all in front of us.

It is not as if we did not know. We saw it happening. We argued across the floor in this House. The Government side voted against this two short years ago and earlier. In a Private Members' motion we demanded that the Government take immediate action and it went against it. Regrettably, hundreds of thousands of existing houses with poor energy efficiency, such as hollow block built homes, will have a lower energy rating and, consequently, a lower resale value. Home owners will continue to pay more every year for the heating of those homes and the repayments while the homes lose value. Fianna Fáil voted against that two years ago. We could see it happening in front of us.

I do not blame builders for this. Builders are long enough in the game to build to the regulations and do only what they need to do to build and sell a house. I blame the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government with the collusion of Government. It is the most disgraceful thing that has happened in the environment area in the past ten years. It happened in front of our eyes. The Government was reminded time and again. I saw Mr. McCaughey on television many times. I discussed it with him two or three times. Deputy Gormley, as an Opposition Deputy for the Green Party, raised it time and again. I saw the sums being done and it being priced. I saw the international movement and the different moves we made here to get out of it. I had many arguments with then Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche, on it in the House and outside and no attempt was made to do it.

The Cathaoirleach will understand why I am less than enthusiastic about what Senator Boyle referred to as an uncontroversial motion. There is nothing whatever wrong with Senator Butler's points and I have no problem with them. I have a problem with this idea that the world began tonight. This was sitting in front of us for ten years and we walked away from it. We refused to deal with it. We have condemned people to sub-standard conditions, high payments, etc. There are companies that have done everything to try to get it right. Companies such as Century Homes and Kingspan led the way on this and fought for it. It created a major and unnecessary row between timber framed and concrete homes. There is no reason concrete homes could not be properly insulated. We refused to deal with these issues and that is why I would feel hypocritical supporting the motion.