Cold households are ‘in limbo’
Fuel poverty is going to be a huge issue in the coming year for people in county Cork.
That’s according to County Councillor Ian Doyle (Fianna Fáil) who has labelled the current backlog of 757 Cork households waiting to avail of the Better Energy Warmer Homes Scheme as “unacceptable”.
Speaking at Monday’s full meeting of Cork County Council, Cllr Doyle praised the scheme which promises to provide free energy efficiency upgrades for eligible homes around the country.
The councillor said it is a “great scheme” but condemned the ever-growing waiting list which has now reached more than 7,000 nationwide.
“I know personally that these houses are not in good condition and they need this insulation,” said Cllr Doyle.
He was responding to a motion put forward by Cllr John-Paul O’Shea (Fine Gael) in July calling for a plan to be made to reduce waiting times.
Cllr O’Shea said he was “very disappointed” with the response he received from the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications regarding his motion.
He said: “This is our second time writing now. These are the people that are in fuel poverty and are in receipt of the fuel allowance. I have a number of constituents who have said that their application is in for over 12 months now and they haven't heard a dicky bird from the department.”
Cllr O’Shea said many people who have applied for the scheme, which is administered by SEAI (Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland) and partly funded by the Irish Government and the EU, are unsure of whether they are even on the list or not.
“They're very much in limbo and they don't have a clue what's happening,” said the councillor.
In response to Cllr O’Shea’s original motion, a spokesperson for the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications said that to date, the scheme has delivered free energy efficiency upgrades to over 143,000 homes across the country.
The spokesperson added that data from the SEAI indicates that homes completed in the first half of 2021 endured an average waiting time for almost 26 months from application to completion.
They said the average wait times have increased significantly in 2021 due to the extensive Covid-19 related restrictions on construction activity between March and June 2020.
The scheme was fully paused between January and April 2021 in line with Government guidelines.
“Funding for SEAI energy poverty retrofit schemes has increased significantly to over €109 million in 2021, with €100 million allocated to the Warmer Homes Scheme. This is an increase of €47 million on the 2020 allocation. Additional resources have been secured this year to expand the capacity of the SEAI to deliver the scheme. Every effort is being made to maximise activity now that construction activity in the residential sector has recommenced,” said the spokesperson.