'Grants for home energy upgrades must be increased' say South Roscommon councillors

by David Flynn

South Roscommon councillors have called for increases to the grant amounts awarded by the Government for home energy upgrades - and for the payments to older homeowners to be sped up.

The calls for changes to the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) grant scheme were made by councillors Laurence Fallon and Tony Ward during last month's meeting of Roscommon County Council, which was given a progress report on the local authority's climate action plan.

Cllr Laurence Fallon said there was a need for an increase to the SEAI grant, which he said would be money well spent.

"I've had some involvement in the upgrading of homes, but there are many older homes where air-to-water pumps are not suitable. The cost of upgrading homes is huge," said Cllr Fallon.

"The cost for homes built in the '60s and '70s is about €60,000, with maybe a €35,000 grant, and they (the homeowners) have to find the €60,000 and may be short €30,000. If the Government is serious about this there is a need for a greater grant."

The Independent councillor proposed that the council write to the Minister about this, which was seconded by another Independent, Cllr Valerie Byrne.

Curraghboy's Cllr Tony Ward said that, in dealing with older people in relation to grants, he found that in order for people to qualify for a grant they would have to wait for around two years.

"The SEAI are saying to wait two years, but the people I’m dealing with are in their 70s and 80s and they may never get to draw down the grant," said Cllr Ward.

"It is completely wrong and not appropriate for people who do qualify to have to wait two years. I propose that we write to the relevant Minister about this."

His motion was seconded by Sinn Fein’s Cllr Leah Cull and, like the Fallon motion, it received the unanimous backing of members who decided that the details of the two motions should be sent in one letter to the Minister.

At the beginning of the discussion, the council's Climate Action Coordinator, Aoife Moore gave the progress report on Roscommon County Council's climate action plan.

She highlighted the progress that was made last year in community engagement and said that training has been given to staff, and that they are active on social media, and in mainstream articles, and there was a quarterly newsletter on the council website.

Cathaoirleach, Liam Callaghan acknowledged the SEAI grants, but said that people were fearful of upgrading their homes because of the cost of electricity going forward.

"We have to be able to produce our own energy going forward, and have to really engage for our next generation of people," said the Fine Gael councillor.

He said there was an event in Athlone a few weeks ago for Foroige where young people were involved in sowing apple trees and making gardens more efficient.

Fianna Fail’s Cllr Paschal Fitzmaurice also mentioned that young people from his own town of Castlerea were in Athlone planting apple trees, and that they "feel a small part of ownership of that project".

Cllr John Keogh said he had recently attended an eye-opening presentation at Mount Lucas in Offaly to discuss wind energy development.

"There was a presentation by John Reilly from Bord na Mona which opened my eyes more than they had already been opened on the need to address energy and climate change and biodiversity," said Cllr Keogh.

"There is no question we have to develop more renewables and reduce reliance on greenhouse gas. We're doing good work but we have to continue on that for future generations."

Fine Gael’s Cllr Valerie Duffy said there were many schools in need of upgrade energy upgrades "and that’s an area where we would like to see more work".

Aoife Moore told the members that, in terms of the total budget for climate action, a lot of what the council was doing was developing "pipelines of projects" and there were a number of different funding streams available for these projects.

"The Just Transition Fund is ongoing and there are twelve expressions of interest that we are hoping to get through shortly,” said the council's Climate Action Coordinator.