A TD has hit out at the lack of help for middle income households to improve home energy efficiency and reduce living costs.
Brid Smith was speaking after the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland updated the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action on retrofitting schemes on Tuesday.
SEAI oversees One Stop Shops to ‘deep retrofit homes’ to a B2 energy efficiency rating through upfront payments and loans as well as free grants for vulnerable households through the Warmer Homes Scheme.
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Ms Smith said: “I represent a constituency with very mixed types of incomes.
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“The One Stop Shop is great if you have a good hefty income and you can pay upfront for deep retrofitting and you can apply for all the grants to get it back, but it means you have to be well off financially and be able to pay the money up front.
“The Warmer Homes Scheme is great if you are on fuel allowance and you get your house done by the state or SEAI for free, but we have just heard there’s a waiting list.
“It’s 28 months of a waiting list and in the budget they have extended the availability of fuel allowance to thousands more people to the over 70s.
“It will be two or three years before they get a sniff at it.
“I think we are piling problems on top of problems and one last problem I see coming is individual energy upgrades.
“The contractor has written and told us now they can do attic insulation, cavities, external walls, internal walls, ventilation installation of mechanical fans and they can apply directly to [SEAI] if the applicant signs.
“Now you have a whole cohort of people in the middle, which is the vast majority of people in this country... not the very wealthy, not the very poor, but the ones who work for an average industrial wage who are going to have to have €4-5,000 up front before they are entitled to anything at all and I think this is ridiculously punitive and unhelpful.
The People Before Profit/Solidarity politician also raised concerns about whether the body could meet its target of “half a million homes to be retrofitted by 2030”.
“It would mean we would have to be doing something like 60-70,000 per year and we are falling way short of that,” added Ms Smith.
“Then we are coming up against the problems of contractors not being available, labour not being available.”
Minister Ryan unveiled the National Home Energy Upgrade Scheme in February to help people retrofit their homes.
Its aim is to bring 500,000 homes to a B2 Building Energy Rating standard by 2030, which is a third of homes in the country.
The committee heard how loans for the One Stop Shops are still being worked out with banks and will not be available until 2023.
Twelve contractors have been approved to deliver One Stop Shop services, with 10 more in the pipeline but labour shortages across retrofitting schemes have resulted in delays.
In her opening statement about the retrofitting programme, SEAI’s Margey McCarthy said: “To date in 2022 over 36,000 applications have been received by SEAI across our schemes and all are experiencing significant levels of demand from homeowners.
“This equates to approximately 28,800 homes being retrofitted.”
“There are constraints in delivery at the present time,” she added.
“The Warmer Homes Scheme is our main energy poverty scheme... over 3,200 [231 to a B2 standard] homes have been delivered to date in 2022.”
It is understood the target is 4,800 by the end of December.
Ms McCarthy said inflation and supply chain constraints, like labour and materials, have hit progress but added: “SEAI are acutely aware of the potential to inflate specific markets by increasing grant levels and have therefore focused on attracting more contractors.”
Following questions from TDs SEAI revealed that 1,270 homes have been assessed through One Stop Shops, 637 work orders and 89 completed.
Homeowners who can afford the scheme are able to benefit without taking out a loan.
DECC has been contacted for comment.
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