Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join with the Leader's comments in regard to Creeslough, Donegal. On behalf of the Fianna Fáil group I extend our deepest sympathies to the families, those who have lost loved ones and to the entire community. I strongly commend the fantastic work done by the emergency services who were on the scene dealing with what was an unthinkable tragedy. The scale of it is phenomenal. I also commend those working in the hospital. They had to step up their emergency response. The scale of what they had to deal with in a short space of time was such that if it had to be planned for it would be difficult even to plan. They did everything they could.

I commend those working on the ground now providing meals because the community has lost its only shop. I commend the Government for using the existing humanitarian scheme that would normally be put in place for flood disasters to try and assist families out of direct financial assistance in the weeks and months ahead. It is an unthinkable tragedy.

It is important while we will be discussing the tragedy, and it will be top of the news agenda for the next number of weeks, that we do not forget those families and those communities beyond that point and that we continuously keep an eye on it because the loss and the impact of that tragedy will be felt far into the future. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamacha. It was lovely to see at the commemorative service the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Leader of the Opposition on the ground with the communities so soon after what had happened. It shows the immense solidarity and support that we have for those communities and that the entire country has been impacted and affected by what happened there.

I will raise another matter which is the energy costs around retrofitting. The deep retrofit scheme was announced earlier this year. It would be timely to have a debate in this House with the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, on how that is working because one of the things we could do to assist people with their energy costs is to try to help people to cut energy waste and to make their homes more efficient.

I have concerns around the way the retrofit scheme has been set up. In order to access the deep retrofit grant it is only necessary to pay the balance because a point of contact will do all the works and only charges the balance as the grant is claimed by that company. However, to access the grant on a piecemeal basis, perhaps having the windows done first and then insulation separately to reduce expenditure, all the cost must be paid upfront and the grant is claimed back afterwards. This seems to make it far easier for those who can afford to spend the big money on a full deep retrofit and not as easy for people trying to do it bit by bit until they get their list of works done. We need to look at that because it has become more expensive now that the cost of materials and labour has gone through the roof.