Richard Boyd Barrett: Fuel Poverty, Home Retrofits and Plastics

It's absolutely freezing outside and I think most people have felt that cold and I think we should bear that in mind over the next number of weeks because we have hundreds of thousands of people in this country affected by fuel poverty. For elderly people it is, you know, in some cases even life threatening. We have hundreds of thousands of people who get on receipt of fuel allowance, people on very, very low incomes trying to heat their homes in these freezing temperatures. So this is a real social problem but it's also an environmental problem because people with poorly insulated homes and people on low incomes have to spend massive amounts of money to try and keep themselves warm or often just plans. But in so far as they try to are also wasting huge amounts of energy and I want to put it to you this time of the year brings into sharp focus the need to do something dramatic and radical in terms of providing supports, grants, funding and assistance to people to insulate their homes or for the state to directly move in and insulate their homes. Achieving two very important objectives. One, keeping people warm who are freezing and two, dramatically reducing CO2 emissions if you do it right. I mean there is an A1 rated home can have an annual bill of about 280 euro but if you're in the lowest rated home as many very low income people are in this country you could be paying 3,000 euro a year to keep your home warm. And so as the people who are most affected by these things have the least resources and our grant schemes are just nowhere near sufficient to assist people on low incomes to insulate their homes and for those in private rented accommodation and social housing they can't even do it if they want to. And the public schemes in this regard are simply abysmal. So are you going to address this issue of retrofit, insulation and supporting people affected by fuel poverty and by the cold to insulate their homes and help also address a major cause of CO2 emissions? Thanks very much. Thanks very much. Deputies, just in relation to the question on plastics, I just want to say that I think it's right and proper that officials and civil servants should engage with all stakeholders on any issue whether it's industry bodies or unions or NGOs or through public consultations provide us done in a transparent way and in accordance with the Lobbying Act and the Freedom of Information Act. The Lobbying Act having been brought in by a government of which I was a member precisely to properly regulate lobbying and making it more transparent, which hadn't been the case under previous administrations, but not to try to ban it or restrict it because lobbying is part of a democracy and should happen in a democracy. The government has taken the lead on plastics, first of all by banning single-use plastics from government departments. There are none in mind and that's being extended across the public service with a few exceptions where they may be necessary. And also we're strong supporters of new European Union proposals to introduce a ban on unnecessary single-use plastics in the single market. And we're very supportive of that. On the issue of fuel poverty, the fuel allowance or the energy allowance, as it's going to be renamed, will increase in January in only a few weeks' time. And we're also going to use the proceeds or some of the proceeds that are coming in from the increase in the carbon tax to retrofit social housing, particularly in the Midlands. About 40 million is coming in from that and that will allow us to retrofit and improve the energy rating of more social housing in the Midlands. And that will be built on in the years to come. And also there's the warmer home schemes and some other grants that people can apply for. And we're increasing our efforts in that regard all the time. On electric vehicles, the query has been put into the Department of Transport. I haven't got a reply yet, but I will pass them on to Deputy Martin as soon as I do. On Smoky Coal, Minister Bruton has announced an extension to 13 more towns and that will kick in from September of next year. And these include towns that have some serious air quality issues. We have decided, however, against a nationwide ban, as our best legal advice tells us that it could lead to the existing local bans, including the one here in Dublin being struck down or may require us to ban the burning of wood and turf as well. And we don't want to do that. We haven't published our legal advice and we haven't done that for exactly the reasons that the deputy said. We have not published the attorney's legal advice on this and we won't be doing so precisely for the reasons that the deputy counsels that we should not. I do notice that Deputy Martin goes back to 1990 a lot and former Minister Harney's ban on Smoky Coal in Dublin and goes back to the 1990s as though it were yesterday. And it may seem like yesterday to Deputy Martin, but it's actually not. It's a long time ago and a lot has changed in the 30 years since 1990. And what we know now is scientific evidence that tells us that burning turf and wood is as bad for air quality as banning Smoky Coal. And that undermines any public health defence that you may make in the courts, because the coal industry can come in and say, if you're arguing that you're banning this on public health grounds, we have scientific information that shows that burning turf and wood is just as bad for public health. Therefore, your public health argument falls. That is the problem that we're facing. And we don't want to ban the burning of turf and wood in Ireland, particularly not in rural areas. So that's why we've adopted a more proportionate approach and a more legally sound approach, which is to extend the Smoky Coal ban to the 13 towns that Mr. Bruton announced yesterday. Thank you, Taoiseach. I oppose to take questions 9 and 10 together. Requests for use of the ministerial air transport service are made by ministers' private secretaries to my office and are dealt with in the first instance by the staff in my private office. Requests are examined by my staff with regard to the need for and purpose of travel, destination, availability and suitability of other travel arrangements and other logistical details. Any necessary clarification or further information is solved at this point. All operational matters are settled directly between the office of the minister in question and also the Department of Defense or the Air Corps. Thank you. Thank you.