Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It is a good day for Ireland and the retrofitting plan we will see announced this evening is a positive step. We could have done with it about ten or 15 years ago but back then only the Green Party was talking about this kind of stuff. Finally lots of other people are catching up and we have prioritised it. Since my first week in the Seanad I was having meetings with officials and advisers about how we could do this better and make it more affordable.

I suffered from fuel poverty as single mum when my son was small. I could not afford even half a tank of oil and I have said in the House before that I remember having to buy a bale of briquettes and move the bedroom down to the sitting room to keep us warm. Back then I found out about grants and told the landlord and I was lucky that he put in attic insulation, although I did all the work, and he also pumped the cavity walls. Those are two of the big things that will be coming in this retrofitting plan we have not had, which allows one to do small retrofitting works. I never had to sleep in that sitting room again because that insulation made a huge difference. Back then the grants were about €400 and now we will see a tripling of that.

This is a positive day but people will always throw mud, especially if there is a successful project in place and it is great that the three Government parties came together and put the money behind this to bring in this hugely important measure that will affect people on every level. People might say that only the rich can afford it but if you look at the details you will see: that all social housing stock will get it done for free; that people on low income will be able to avail of it; and that people with the lowest energy rated houses will be dealt with first because we know there is a shortage of qualified workers and we have to prioritise the most vulnerable first. That will be rolled out from tomorrow so it is not a long-term plan but a short-term plan to look at the most vulnerable first and then in the long term, people who want to do big and deep retrofits can do so. Already more than 400,000 houses in Ireland have received deep retrofits in case anyone thinks this has not been done before. It just was not as affordable before and now we will see the grants vastly improved. We will also see better and low-percentage green loans made available. This will be more affordable for more people and people will not have to come up with the money up front because the grant can go directly to the person who is doing the work.

I had meetings with people in the building industry a few years ago and this is what they wanted. They wanted a clear plan and commitment from Government so they would know as builders and tradesmen that it would be worth their while taking on more staff and reskilling and upskilling people. Now they can see the supports are there from the Government for the brilliant tradesmen of Ireland. We can do this as a result of today’s hugely successful announcement on retrofitting. It is always good to celebrate the wins. We can always throw mud but it is hard to find fault with this one and a lot of the money came from carbon tax. People go on about carbon tax as if it is the beginning and end of all the problems but it is 2 cent on the litre. About 30 cent of the increase is coming from global issues that we could do nothing about. We foresaw all of them years ago, which is why we have worked so hard on this day and night. I congratulate the advisers, experts and civil servants who worked hard on getting this across the line. I also congratulate the three Government parties that committed to it more than anybody else. Talk is cheap but this is action and this is a good day for Ireland and our Government.