Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will take the Senator's proposal with regard to reducing VAT rates to the Minister, Deputy Ryan. The Senator will know that there are two parts to the major retrofit scheme, the better energy warmer homes scheme, which is free, and a further scheme for people who are owner-occupiers and outside of that. To help people to afford it, there are two parts to that, one of which is a grants scheme. We are bringing in a cheap loans scheme as well to fund the other portion of the investment because we know that many people who are working hard but do not fit within that category will be faced with a large expenditure. The idea is that the savings made from reduced energy bills would be used to meet the repayments on the loan. That is important to remember.

This scheme has changed enormously. It has moved from a scheme which had only about €20 million in funding per annum to a scheme that is now six times that size. Every year, it is massively increasing. The sum of €109 million is provided for this year for the better energy warmer homes scheme. The funding for next year will be larger in that there will be a capital carryover from unspent money. For a quarter of this year all construction activity was banned and so works could not be done. This is not just an excuse. There is a huge desire to do this. One of the most important things any Government can do is to keep poorer people warm in their homes in the winter, in particular older people who feel the cold more. It is an absolute necessity. In the face of rising energy prices and so on, it is a priority that we manage to do that. We cannot achieve our climate action goals without doing this. We need to insulate all these homes in this country. It is an enormous project, costing €25 billion over ten years and it requires 25,000 staff. There is huge retraining going on and huge redirection of financial resources. It is a massive priority for us. Any suggestions the Senator may have would be welcomed by my office or the office of the Minister, Deputy Ryan.