Departmental Schemes
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-10
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Michael Murphy (FG), Tipperary South

I thank the Minister of State for his reply, which alluded to a 21-month waiting time. Correspondence sent to me directly by the SEAI confirmed that the waiting time is somewhere between 24 and 26 months. People came into my office in quarter 3 of 2024 and as of now, 14 months later, the SEAI cannot tell me when these homes will be surveyed. I have people in their 90s who applied in quarter 3 of 2024. They will not be alive when their house is due for a survey.
I appreciate the Minister of State's reply, but there is no concrete or time-bound plan. Nothing will change for people who are currently waiting for years for essential upgrades and insulation. I cannot understand why we cannot get the surveys done quicker. Not every house needs a heat pump or a new set of windows. Sometimes houses just need insulation. I cannot understand why we cannot deliver insulation upgrades within six months. The expansion of the fuel allowance to those on the working family payment would see a surge of 50,000 new houses qualifying for the warmer homes scheme. If we expand eligibility without expanding delivery capacity, we will simply deepen frustration, lengthen queues and worsen energy poverty.
There are, I say again, 20,000 homes on the waiting list. If nothing changes, these numbers will only go in one direction, which is upwards. I am telling the Minister of State that I will be here again next year and there will be 30,000 homes on the waiting list. It will take 16 or 18 months for a survey. It will take more than three years for full completion of works and vulnerable people cannot wait for three years. We need a backlog reduction task force, emergency procurement of surveyors and contractors and a fast-track system for the elderly and particularly high-risk households. This is about dignity, fairness and the basic right to a warm home. We need timelines, capacity and an action plan or the scheme will continue to fail the very people it was created to protect. People in their 90s who applied in quarter 3 of 2024 will not be alive when their houses are due for a survey.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:27+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-10