Submission to Affordable Energy Consultation

Fuel poverty is a question of the thermal efficiency of housing. In a market, generally the most inefficient housing will be occupied by those with the least purchasing power; whether as house-owners or as tenants. This is the case in Ireland. Therefore eliminating fuel poverty will require the thermal upgrade of the vast bulk of the current housing stock. Analysis of the requirements of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) mitigation and of long-term economic value demonstrates this needs to be a deep retrofit.
Current policy fails to adequately address the needs of those who do not have the capital to invest in deep retrofit.
It fails entirely to address the situation of tenants in private rented accommodation. (Incidentally, failing to ensure the quality of private rented accommodation puts extra pressure on local authority housing lists.)
The Environmental Pillar recommend that the DCENR builds on the significant work done to date which has not yet seen fruition to produce a thermal retrofit programme aimed at the vast bulk of the housing stock.
Even an accelerated retrofit programme will take many years. Therefore it makes sense to target retrofit based on a range of criteria. The Environmental Pillar suggest therefore that the further data collection and analysis that is required is that which would enable this targeting.
[button href=”https://environmentalpillar.ie/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/EPAffordable_Energy_Consultation-1.pdf” title=”Title” target=”blank” shape=”square, rounded, pill” size=”mini, small, regular, large, x-large, jumbo” icon_only=”true” info=”popover, tooltip” info_place=”top, right, bottom, left” info_trigger=”hover, click, focus” info_content=”This content will only show up if you have decided to show a popover.”] Click here to see the full submission[/button]