Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach for selecting my Commencement matter. I was chuffed by the fact that the office of the senior Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, rang to say he was not able to take it and that the Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, would deputise. The Minister of State is quite welcome to deal with this and I am sure he is very competent as well.

My issue relates to SEAI grants and the considerable delay - sometimes up to two years - for house wrapping in particular. It probably also applies to the underfloor heating systems but I will not concentrate on that.There is an unusual situation whereby SEAI personnel must carry out the building energy rating, BER. I checked on Google this morning; there are 11 or 12 reputable companies advertising rating from A to G, A being the maximum and G the minimum. When a property is being sold, it is more or less taken as standard among solicitors and auctioneers that there has to be a BER certificate. The SEAI people visited the widow to whom I refer and who is getting her house wrapped, four different times. There could be a four-month delay to get SEAI BER certification because nothing else is accepted. This is a dangerous monopoly.

Any competent qualified engineer could do this work. There is one in a west Cork town who has a masters degree in engineering. She specialises in BER certification and many solicitors and auctioneers deal with her. In one instance, a contentious issue was challenged in court and upheld. It is an unhealthy monopoly. Ordinary citizens get little information when they phone the centres providing this information.

A councillor in Kerry said he had contacted a centre in Cahersiveen on a number of occasions and that getting information was like trying to get teeth out of a duck. A delay of 18 months or two years is unwarranted. Is there too much demand for the services? In my area, a widow in her 70s purchased a local authority house, something which was encouraged. It was built in the 1970s. She wants the house to be wrapped. She has a stove and is using solid fuel. She sometimes uses coal, if she can get it, as well as turf and timber. In one sense, the Department of the environment has said that is a no-no but she has no other way of heating her house. She has waited in excess of 18 months and does not know when the job will be done.

When builders do restoration or other work on houses, they usually say that they will be with someone within two weeks and will let them know when they are starting work. Another lady who spoke to me said she did not know when workers were coming. They arrived one Monday morning when there was a family wedding. She was totally unprepared and was told that if she delayed the work they would not be back for another nine months. She went ahead with the work, but it did not happen at an appropriate time. It would have been more appropriate to be told three or four weeks earlier that the workers would be with her in the first week of February or March and would proceed with the building.

I am concerned about inordinate delays. The SEAI is probably understaffed. I am also concerned about the monopoly in respect of BER certification. I am asking questions in a careful and managed, rather than a derogatory, way. Is it the case that grants may run out and SEAI schemes evaporate or slow down? Are those involved saying they will manage things as best they can because if everything folds in five years' time, which we hope it will not, they will be without jobs? Is it a case of jobs for the boys?