Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday evening I was canvassing. I was in a new build house with an air-to-water heat system. The occupants said they are in the house two years and they cannot believe it. Their cost of heating is lower than when they lived in a rented house, although the rented house was probably not as well insulated, etc. They had a really positive story to tell but many people only hear that such development is hugely expensive, nobody can afford it and the grants are not large enough. That is the general narrative that people hear and that all of this stuff is about punishing or pushing down on people. All of us share the responsibility of showing the opportunities, positives and benefits.

Professor Caulfield earlier mentioned the grants available. For a lot of people, while there is a grant available, there must be an affordability element. They can get a grant to get an EV or get their house done but they must have a certain amount themselves. The people who need assistance most do not have that because they have already have a mortgage, loans or teenagers in college. They already have the other pressures of life so we need to find some way of front-loading more of the assistance so people can make the changes thus enabling them to experience the benefits and then we can, hopefully, turn that messaging around. That is one of the critical issues to overcome all of this.