Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairperson and welcome the Minister to the Chamber.

I have raised this issue with the Minister previously. I am aware that it has been one of the Minister's key policy areas in terms the deep retrofit scheme and ensuring that we can make our homes more energy efficient, not only to address the climate challenge - we need to retrofit homes to meet our emissions targets - but also to address increasing fuel poverty and the challenges of heating homes.

We have set, as the Minister has said, a very ambitious target to retrofit half a million homes by 2030 to a standard of B2 or higher. It is a very ambitious plan. Currently, we have hit maybe 3% or 4% of that and we have a considerable way to go in the next seven years to meet those targets.

There appear to be some challenges, in particular, with the one-stop shops and the deep retrofit programmes, and it is important that these are addressed. What I am hearing back from industry, as the Minister will be aware, is that there is a shortage of qualified tradespeople to carry out the work. The grants available, while considerable, are only a fraction of the cost being quoted to potential customers. I had one individual approach me who wanted to install photovoltaic, PV, solar panels in his home and a heat pump. In terms of retrofitting, these are standard enough things we would like to see in most older homes. He was quoted €137,000 for those works. He was being given a grant of €21,000 and the balance was €116,000. There are very few households that can afford that level of outlay for a retrofit. We need people to install the heat pumps. We need people to install solar panels. It is out of reach, I would suggest, for many households.

It appears, and certainly some of the commentary would suggest, that there may be a lack of competition among the one-stop shops, there are not enough of them doing the work, and whatever grant is available seems to be swallowed up by the prices being quoted for individual items on the bill of works. I have seen one quotation for the installation of a heat pump just shy of €20,000 and the grant is €7,000 or €8,000. I would suggest one could probably get a heat pump installed for far less than that. That seems to be certainly on the higher end of the scale and one has to ask the question, are some of the one-stop shops inflating the prices that they are quoting to people in the knowledge that there is a grant available and they are swallowing up the grant that is available? That needs to be tackled head-on with the one-stop shop because it is the only place one can go to get a deep retrofit.

That brings me to my second issue, that is, the one-off grants. Many people will choose, because they will have no choice, to do it piece by piece and avail of the individual grants. With the one-stop shop and with the deep retrofit, one only pays the balance. The grant is applied at the start and one does not have to pay the full amount. One pays the balance, even though it seems to be astronomical amounts. With the individual grants, however, one has to pay the full amount upfront and one claims back afterward. That seems to be an inequity that those with less money unable to do the full retrofit have to find all of the money upfront and then claim the grant back afterwards. I ask the Minister to address that issue, to even it out across both options whereby one would only pay the balance for the cost of works however we can achieve that.

There are some works that are not covered under the individual grants that are covered under the deep retrofit, and that is also a deep inequality. For example, one cannot get one's home energy assessment done under the individual grants. It is costing anything from €500 to €800 just to get one's home assessed and check out its energy rating efficiency. We want all homes to have that assessment done but it is quite a lot of money and there is no grant available for somebody to do that under the individual grants. One cannot get floor insulation, windows and doors, or ventilation under the individualised grants but they are covered under the one-stop shop - the deep retrofit. The one-stop shop really is for people with significant amounts of money or access to money. There are certain grants that people who have less money - those most at risk of fuel poverty, and the ones who want to try to do their best and do it piece by piece because that it is better than it not happening at all - cannot access because they are doing it bit by bit. I ask the Minister to look at that and at least level up the two options - the one-stop shop and the individual grants - to ensure that grants that are available under one pathway under the one-stop shop are also available on an individualised basis. That would at least bring some equity to the way the grants are being applied and would hopefully assist us in increasing the numbers of homes being retrofitted to the standard that we need them to be.