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OLDER PEOPLE WILL be “trapped” in increasingly cold homes after the government directed local councils to cease grants to replace broken gas and oil boilers in private housing, an advocacy group has warned.
Age Action has said that the new rule is “too rigid and has no flexibility”, and doesn’t take into account Ireland’s “poorly insulated” one-off housing stock that often costs more to heat.
One local councillor in Waterford who has already seen the result of the rule change said it will mean a number of elderly people will be left “facing a cold winter” over the coming years unless the system is eased for older households.
It follows the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage instructing Ireland’s local councils to cease grants for the replacement of gas and oil burners for elderly people. This will come into effect from the start of next month.
It’s the result of new EU legislation included in the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, previously adopted by the European Parliament and Council, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the EU.
The Housing Aid for Older People Grant is for essential work to improve the condition of an older person’s home so they can continue to live there. It is aimed at people aged 66 and older living in poor housing conditions.
While gas or oil boilers can still be repaired under the scheme, they cannot be replaced with a new fossil fuel system.
The measure is meant to encourage people away from fossil fuels for their heating – directing them to transition to more sustainable air-to-water systems – but it has been described as short-sighted by Age Action’s senior policy specialist Nat O’Connor.
Instead, the group wants to see an “energy guarantee”, which O’Connor explained would see someone receive cash support to help pay their bills for the remainder of their life.
“This is a process that will take 20-25 years to transform the housing stock and various cohorts of older people are at risk of being left out,” O’Connor said.
O’Connor said the rule change is a particular issue for Ireland, with the country “riddled with atypical housing”. He noted that contemporary reports from the past 20 years showed that one-third of housing was unattached and one-off stock.
O’Connor said that Age Action has found that older people are concerned by climate change and want to adapt to it, but he believes the change flies in the face of past calls for a ‘just transition’.
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“This is a real issue and our concern is that you can’t rush this,” O’Connor said. “With older people, they may not want their house turned up outside down due to illness and they may also not have the money to pay for a new system.”
Independent city councillor in Waterford Donal Barry told The Journal that he saw it as an “irrational decision to penalise older people for a minimal amount of carbon savings”, with the result being “unnecessary hardship and distress” to older people.
He said he had recently sought for a boiler to be replaced for one man in his area, only to be told by Waterford City and County Council that the incoming rule change will mean it’s very unlikely a replacement can be provided as before.
“The Government and the ministers responsible for older people and housing need to urgently address this issue and not cause undue hardship and suffering to our elderly,” he said.
European Commission direction
The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage told The Journal that it received final guidance from the European Commission in October, confirming that a grant scheme operated by Ireland and other EU member states “shall not finance the installation of stand-alone fossil fuel boilers” from January 1 next month.
“While the European Commission is sympathetic to vulnerable households its position is that public support should not lock these vulnerable households into the use of fossil fuels for the future,” the department said.
“If an application was received and granted previous to that date, the grant may cover a stand-alone fossil fuel boiler even if paid after the 1st of January.”
The department added that other options for funding can include installation of a renewable heating systems such as heat pumps or biomass heating, electrical heating or hybrid heating systems with a considerable share of renewables.
Separately, householders may be able to avail of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) renewable energy grants, which can fund heat pump, solar thermal and solar PV systems as well as insulation to improve the energy performance of homes.
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@F1rYnpWc: Now, seeing as the new Givernment has not been formed, I wonder which branch if the old Government gave that particular directive….. by any chance, the branch that has been cut from the tree, bar one member. It would be in the new Governments best interest to remind that particular directive, or else face that branches fate!
@Colette Mooney: jet is absolutely necessary, and Ireland is the only EU country without such modern transport. Plus it’s a tiny fraction of yearly voted expenditure. If it’s such an easy job why didn’t you stand for election?
@Johnny Wilson: Do ye hear yourself Johnny?. Ireland doesn’t do modern transport because fffg and the other misfits that have been in government since forever have failed the people. It’s all grand now, tho because of a government jet, hahahaha, the state of ye. Happy Christmas, Johnny. You’re bleeding gas….
@Johnny Wilson: you’re a rather pathetic, shameless government cheer leader aren’t you!
Tell me, when the incompetent cartel FFG gave themselves 3 pay hikes during Covid, a time when generational businesses were decimated, when arbitrary restrictions we’re meted out which they themselves repeatedly broke, when the government repeatedly told us we’re all in this together when we clearly were not. Were you the same sycophant then as you are now, as their stewardship is just as calamitous now as it was then!
Grow a back bone will you or please STFU until such time that you do.
Merry Christmas to you.
@Oh Mammy: they basically don’t, unless the person is entitled to the fully funded warmer homes grant, which is a fantastic scheme but has up to a 2 year wait from application just to have an assessment done. The individual grants give very small amounts of money, nowhere near sufficient to entice most. They should follow a similar structure to the council housing grants, support % higher and determined by means. Going for the one stop shop will cost in the region of €80k in some instances, you get less than half of that (and you will need to redecorate after), most simply don’t have the means – and for an older person living alone, they would never ever see a return financially.
@Oh Mammy: Yeah I can’t actually believe what I’ve just read (well no sadly I can)… this is beyond comprehension. I’m in tears right now. They didn’t succeed destroying the lives of our amazing Elders during the scamdemic so now they want them to freeze. I’m not letting this go and will stand over my convictions. There will be hell to pay come 2025 if it’s the last thing I do.
@Donna Fallon: Scamdemic? Just shows your lack of intelligence or logical thinking skills. Covid killed tens of thousands of elderly, people you claim to care deeply about. If you had your way Covid would have finished off most of them. You so easily forget Italy. When it hit there first their elderly died in alarming numbers.
There is no alternative to gas boilers in many apartments and terraced houses.
Most oil boilers can indefinitely be repaired by replacing the faulty burner unit or whatever part is broken. A bit like Triggers well maintained broom in Only Fools and Horses. However, it would often make more sense to replace it with a more efficient condenser gas or oil boiler and in a worse case, it will mean people going back to solid fuel.
@F1rYnpWc: Why the iğnőrant response to my entirely technical comment. You should seek counselling, and maybe give up certain substances for the new year.
There are no bigot parties, although you come across as one yourself.
You may also note that the independent group of TDs hold the balance of power in the incoming government and hopefully will moderate some of the crazy stuff that went on in the previous one.
Te Loony Left and especially the shinners are relegated to the sidelines and many of them already in the dustbin which is great.
Happy Christmas
@FlipBip: we didn’t. The party that supported it’s implementation instead of putting the people first by asking for a delay until alternative arrangments were in place got wiped out in the recent election.
@damien leen: but that’s it they are gone and the new Government has yet to form. Until they do, the instructions of the last Government still stand. You do know how it works, don’t you?
But if you live in a corpo gaff it will be insulated for free. Yeah sound bud.
Only replaced my mother’s boiler two weeks ago didn’t even know there was a grant available!
@Richard Starling: I can’t understand how people cannot get their heads around this. No government has come to power yet in this country, returned or otherwise. These are the instructions of the last Government which included the Greens who were the real policy makers of the last Government using the fear the other 2 parties had of SF to get what they wanted. Now that the Greens are gone, let’s see A/ if the other 2 parties do return to Governmennt, and B/ whatever Government forms, what happens with the Green Party relegated to a foot note in history.
@Pat Barry: Thanks for the lecture that was not required. Two of the three parties of the last government returned to power with new add ons to blame later. Still the elderly suffer
I’m fuming reading this . Our government won’t look after pensioners who worked for this country when the country was in the gutter but can home heat and feed thousands who landed here during invasion of 22 to present day
But yet if ya have a “forever house” free from the state they will be out Xmas morning to fit a new state of the art boiler, at the tax payers expense.
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