Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I ask for a few minutes of the Deputy Leader's time to speak about the difficulties people have in getting support to put solar panels onto their houses. I held two clinics recently, one in Ballinasloe and one in north Roscommon. In all, I had 14 people. Eight of the queries were from people who simply cannot afford to do this work. Basically, to have any saving on electricity, one needs to spend about €15,000, from some research I have done. The grant is for €2,500. It is completely inadequate. If we are really to be serious about green energy and climate change, the Minister, Deputy Ryan, needs to address this issue. That grant should be tripled. In some countries, people get a full grant to do this work. Some €2,500 is totally inadequate, particularly when there is a cost-of-living crisis and people are finding it hard to survive. So many people want to do this work.

We were also told at an earlier stage that there would be some arrangement of a low-cost loan, maybe at 2%, which I thought might work through the credit union. From speaking with people in the credit union, I think they would be more than willing to accommodate that. Basically, until the Minister and his Department change their attitude to this, many people will not be able afford to do the work. Again, we are talking about low to middle-income people who are getting hit a lot. They want to do this because they believe in climate change. The Minister with responsibility, and I am not being disrespectful to him, and I have asked him about this before, is not going where he should with this.We need to have those grants trebled. We need a cheap loan brought in if we really want people to adopt this because, I can tell the House that people want to do it.