Gino Kenny: Urges State-Led Deep Retrofit in Just Transition
Gino Kenny spoke in a parliamentary debate on 18 May 2022 about just transition and the retrofit programme, arguing it must be state-led and available to all households. He cited a community retrofit in Clondoggan and warned that current local authority delivery rates will take decades to complete.
Personal experience and retrofit benefits
Gino Kenny described a deep retrofit of a house in a 40-home community in Clondoggan, funded through a community energy grant scheme, as "revolutionary" and transformative for energy bills. He said widescale retrofit would dramatically reduce household energy costs and ease the mental damage associated with fuel poverty.
Local authority rollout and statistics
He noted that South Dublin County Council has just under 10,000 houses and that last year it retrofitted less than 1% of them, roughly 200-250 homes, a pace he said would take decades to cover all local authority homes. Kenny warned that haphazard or low-standard works could create future problems for retrofit quality and effectiveness.
Call for a state-led, universal programme
Kenny argued the retrofit programme needs to be extended to everyone and to be state-led rather than relying on private finance or asking households to provide large upfront sums. He specifically criticised requirements for homeowners to put up "50 grand" up front as a barrier and pointed to Italy, where the vast majority receive retrofit works free of charge, as an example.
Impact on households and fuel poverty
He emphasised retrofit as a cornerstone of a just transition that will reduce carbon footprints and lower winter energy bills, preventing households from spending multiples on fuel. Kenny framed retrofit as a pragmatic measure to reduce both financial strain and the "violent mental damage" caused by energy insecurity.
We publish thousands of recordings to make Irish politics transparent and resistant to manipulation. Spotted an error? Report it — together we are building a reliable archive of Irish politics.
Thanks Chair and obviously welcome to this very very important debate and I think just transition is not only a national policy but it's an international policy and it's that kind of phrase that environmentalists use and I think it's a great phrase that you know acting local and we have to think global because everything that we do locally is everything that we do globally and you know for just transition we need a environmental space that is as of our place where we live and the country that we live and also the world that we all share and that kind of policy is very very important Minister as you know because to tackle the violent mental damage that has continues to be done and that has been done we need to we need to be radical about what we do individually collectively and kind of politically I just want to kind of speak about one thing one thing in relation to just transition about the retrofit program and I think it's very it's very important I want to speak from a personal experience the estate there I'm living in Clondoggan and they applied for the community energy grant scheme so it's a collection of 40 houses in Clondoggan and I have to say it's the retro a deep retrofit of a house has is revolutionary and it has transformed in relation to energy bills and so forth so in an idea world if everybody got that done it would be really really good fantastic but obviously that's not going to be possible because obviously it takes time to retrofit houses and so forth just to give you some stats of kind of I suppose you know the challenge particularly around local authority houses so for South Dublin County Council there's just under 10,000 houses and last year South Dublin County Council done less than 1% of the houses now obviously if you do the maths that's going to take decades it's it's wrapped up this year it's kind of it's 200 250 and but again that will take a considerable amount of time and some of the reports that I've heard and again I'm not kind of saying that in relation to the estate that I'm from but it has been kind of haphazard in relation to some of the works been done and that could be a problem in relation to the standard of the retrofit and you know that could be problematic not only in the present but in the future and I think Minister the retrofit programme needs to be extended to everybody and I think it's important regardless of your means because asking people to put 50 grand up front that's a huge amount of money and you know a lot of people cannot afford that so I think that can be a barrier towards retrofitting In Italy at the moment most people the vast majority of people will get a retrofit programme completely free of charge in relation to their homes so the Italian government are putting out a policy in relation to retrofitting and I think that's it's good that there is no kind of financial impediments in relation to retrofitting So I think minister retrofitting is I think it's one of the cornerstones of a just transition you know everybody has been lucky to have a house in this country whether it's local authority or private but you know our kind of energy bills and our carbon you know footprint needs to be kind of you know it needs to be smaller and through the retrofit programme I think that can be kind of you know that can be kind of challenged and it can be addressed But I think we need to be more ambitious in relation to how it's state-led rather than a kind of looking for the private you know the private invisible hand to kind of address them issues I think that can be problematic in relation to kind of the amount of particularly local authority houses that can be done at the present because the figures at the moment minister you know it will take decades before you know the last person on that list His house is house is retrofitting and it can make a huge difference an enormous difference to somebody's home where their bills are really high particularly around the winter time and if you're in a situation where kind of you're facing you know a kind of fuel poverty people can be spend multiples multiples of you know of cash in relation to energy bills and if they had their house retrofitted it means it's a no-brainer that their bills will go down in relation to you know you know cash start their spending and also their they're devouring the mental damage that's done so that's possible thought thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you
Thank you for downloading 🙏
If you publish this material on social media, we would be very grateful if you tagged VideoParliament. It helps us reach more people and keep building a transparent archive of Irish politics.
