The warmer homes scheme is supposed to protect the most vulnerable households in our society, including older people, low-income families, people living alone and those wholly dependent on supports like the fuel allowance. Right now the scheme is failing them and it is about to get far worse. I will outline the current reality. On 4 November this year my office contacted the SEAI on behalf of a vulnerable client who applied for the warmer homes scheme in October 2024. Almost 14 months later she is still awaiting a survey or an allocation. The timelines are staggering. It is taking 14 months to get a survey, 26 months for works and another three months for post-works inspection. This is not a functioning scheme. We already have 20,000 homes on the waiting list. The Minister of State knows as well as I do that these are not discretionary upgrades. These are essential measures for people at risk of fuel poverty. The critical point that I want to emphasise is that the number of people on the fuel allowance, the key qualifying criteria for the warmer homes scheme, is expanding dramatically. From next year those on the working family payment will be eligible. That is an additional 50,000 households, bringing the total number of fuel allowance recipients to more than 500,000. If nothing changes, the warmer homes scheme waiting list will surge even further because eligibility will expand faster than delivery capacity. This is not a projected problem; it is an inevitability. The SEAI currently has no action plan, no surge capacity, no backlog reduction strategy and no timeline for clearing the existing 20,000 cases. Money is not an issue but delivery is and telling people that we have increased funding is meaningless if funding does not translate into workers on roofs, contractors on the ground, insulation going into walls and people living in warmer homes. When will a full, published action plan be produced to address the backlog of 20,000 homes? What contingency planning has been done for the additional 50,000 homes that will become eligible under the expanded fuel allowance scheme? Will the Government commit to a maximum six-month waiting time for a survey for any applicant on the fuel allowance? Will the Department intervene directly to ensure that the SEAI increases contractor and surveyor capacity immediately? We cannot keep telling vulnerable people to wait three winters for a warmer home. We cannot expand eligibility by 50,000 households while pretending the scheme can cope as it stands. This requires urgency, action and leadership now, not later.

Sentiment score: 0.02

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.

Sentiment score: -0.04