Air Pollution (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-28
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Timmy Dooley (FF), Clare

I am aware of the Senato's interest in this regard and he has been a very strong advocate for people who live in flats and people in social housing. They have rewarded him on occasion for the work he does. This is important and he has raised an issue that has wider connotations. It has more to do with the upgrade and maintenance of the basic fibre and fabric of the structure of these multi-unit accommodation facilities rather than the airtightness or climate change aspects, which is the point of the warmer homes scheme.
Last year, approximately €90 million was spent by the Department of housing under the energy efficiency retrofit programme and it supported almost 2,700 local authority owned property retrofits. Of these, approximately 90% were fitted with heat pumps so they are more likely to be individual properties. In this year's budget we have put another 50% on top of this in funding and we are up to €140 million. This is targeting approximately 3,500 local authority properties throughout the State. By 2030 we hope to have brought approximately 36,500 State-owned residential properties to a high standard in terms of the retrofit that will make the homes warmer and more energy efficient.
While this has a positive impact, it does not speak to the issue the Senator has raised, which is more about the State's response to bringing flat complexes up to a standard. He knows the area much better than me but I am conscious of it from going in and out of the city, as I have been doing for many years. There was significant demolition and rebuilding around Dolphin's Barn and, more famously, Ballymun went through a significant transformation a number of years ago. The area I am most familiar with is Dolphin's Barn and there are probably others. We also need to look at this in terms of providing privately- and publicly-owned new homes, which is something we are driving very hard. We have to look to these older buildings as well and try to ensure we have the capacity to bring them to a standard.
I am taken by the point the Senator has raised. It is no different to a poor-quality school environment for teachers and kids. If their homes are not to a standard as well, it does take away from people's quality of life and leads to all sorts of other social issues. I know the Senator will advocate for a programme of rebuilding or upgrading homes.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-01-28/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:33+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-28