Tackling cold homes and fossil fuel heating in homes should be budget priorities, say NGOs

The Government needs to take decisive action to tackle unprecedented levels of energy poverty and reduce widespread dependence on fossil fuel home heating before next winter, a coalition of social, environmental and voluntary organisations has urged.

The groups, which will participate in a national economic dialogue on Budget 2024 on Monday, described the latest CSO figures, which show the number of people unable to keep their homes adequately warm doubling between 2021 and 2022 to a record high, as an “unprecedented crisis”.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar will address the opening open session in Dublin Castle, while Minister for Finance Michael McGrath and Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe will provide economic and expenditure “scene setters”. Green Party leader Eamon Ryan and other Ministers will chair breakout sessions on budget priorities. Politicians, NGOs and academics will attend the dialogue.

The joint statement is from organisations including the Society of St Vincent de Paul, Friends of the Earth, Threshold, the Disability Federation, Age Action, the National Women’s Council and the Irish Heart Foundation.

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The 27 organisations make 14 specific recommendations, including a move to address inadequate incomes by raising social welfare rates in line with cost-of-living increases and tackling cold homes for low-income renters and homeowners first.

They call for new, targeted measures to bring down bills and guarantee everyone’s right to energy, while getting off fossil fuel heating and ensuring “a fair energy transition”.

Recommendations include expanding eligibility for the fuel allowance and increasing core social welfare rates by €25, increasing funding to expand access to Sustainability Energy of Ireland’s free energy upgrade scheme to ensure every renovated home is “heat-pump ready” and that renters on HAP are included.

They recommend that community energy advisers should be appointed in every local authority, and for windfall tax to be used to support those most at risk of energy poverty.

Friends of the Earth energy policy officer Clare O’Connor said: “It is powerful to see so many organisations join together to call for an end to our dependence on dirty, expensive fossil fuel heating as a core part of tackling energy poverty and ensuring warm homes for all.”

Budget 2024 should also tackle income adequacy by raising all core social welfare payments by a minimum of €25, she added.

Environmental policy advocate Ciara Murphy at The Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice said social and environmental degradation were two sides of the same coin, requiring “common and just solutions”.

“Reducing our reliance on fossil fuels by retrofitting homes and providing more efficient social and affordable homes can simultaneously reduce our [carbon] emissions while also reducing the prevalence of energy poverty in our society. In the current environmental and housing crises we simply cannot afford to look at these problems in isolation.”

Fleachta Phelan of the Disability Federation of Ireland said disabled people have long lived with higher than average energy bills due to many extra costs associated with disability. “People with disabilities use more electricity on average, and were already more likely to be in utility arrears before this cost-of-living crisis.”

The percentage of people unable to work due to long-standing health problems (disability) who were unable to afford to keep their home adequately warm increased by more than 10 per cent over the past two years – from 8.5 per cent in 2020 to 19.6 per cent in 2022.

“It is deeply worrying to know that people who cannot work because of their disability or health condition are cutting back on necessary heating due to a lack of sufficient income – the health implications of this alone are alarming,” said Ms Phelan..

Manager of the Centre for Environmental Justice at Community Law and Mediation Clodagh Daly, said that despite declaring a climate and biodiversity emergency in 2019, Ireland’s emissions remain among the highest in the EU. “Meanwhile almost half of Ireland’s housing stock is energy inefficient, with many people living in poorly insulated homes that are locked into fossil fuel dependence and struggling to afford necessities such as heat and electricity.

“It is time to prioritise bold investment in cross-sectoral initiatives that deliver long-term solutions to our shared climate and energy poverty challenges.”

Michelle Murphy of Social Justice Ireland highlighted the need for social welfare increases and to make tax credits refundable. “These two targeted measures would directly assist people on fixed incomes and people in low-paid employment who are most impacted by rising energy costs. Measures introduced to mitigate the impact of rising costs have so far failed to address the core issue of income adequacy as many have been one-off in nature and others are insufficient to address the challenges that households on low incomes currently face.”