Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister said that the onus here is not to leave people behind but that is what is happening. I will give the Minister another couple of facts and figures. There are 176,000 social housing units in the State. Approximately 36,000 of them are at a B2 standard or higher. Another 36,000 are to be done by 2030. This means that roughly 100,000 social housing units are being left behind. Social housing is for people who are on lower incomes, including older people and pensioners. Those 100,000 households are going to paying the carbon tax but will not be getting anything in return. We talk about fairness and equality but those who need their homes to be retrofitted the most, those who need their homes to be warmer and their energy costs to be reduced are losing out. As Deputy O'Rourke has said, the people who need support the most are not getting it.

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