Slashing 20 per cent off the Better Energy grants scheme will disincentivise home owners from having energy saving projects carried out and cause job losses in the retrofit sector.
This is the view of Fianna Fáil Galway West TD Éamon Ó Cuív accused Minister Pat Rabbitte of “failing to mention” that under his revamped national retrofit programme, the individual grants available to homeowners have been slashed.
To fit solar panels to a family home costs around €5,000. Under the grant system put in place by the previous government, up to €1,700 of this would have been covered by a home energy savings grant. This figure will be cut to as low as €800 under the new scheme.
“Such a drastic cut will put serious pressure on employment in the sector, despite claims from the Minister that his Better Energy scheme will create jobs,” said Dep Ó Cuív.
According to Dep Ó Cuív, the new measure will have “the opposite effect”.
“I have spoken to a number of contractors in Galway who say their customers will not go through with planned projects now they have to fork out far more of the cost,” he said. “For contractors this means a loss of business, wasted money on supplies already bought, and a drop in demand for future business – all of which will force them to let staff go.
“How can Minister Rabbitte honestly claim that his Better Energy initiative will create 2,000 jobs, when he is putting the sector under serious pressure by making it significantly less affordable for homeowners to avail of the scheme?”
Dep Ó Cuív also said the slashing of the grants cannot be justified by claiming that market prices have decreased.
“They have not,” he said. “In fact, the costs for most contractors have actually increased in the last year, due to the higher fuel prices and the increase in the global market prices for essential raw materials.”
Dep Ó Cuív said Minister Rabbitte must “spell out exactly” what cuts he is implementing and why and clarify the position for people whose grant applications have not yet been fully processed.
