Sir, – It is indeed extraordinary that Eamon Ryan sees nothing wrong with the home retrofitting grant scheme that recycles public money upward from the poorer to those who own houses and have the money to invest €25,000 to improve them. The many who don’t own houses, and those who do but are unable to buy into the scheme, are right to be aggrieved to see taxes collected from them used in such a manner. If the Greens don’t see the inherent injustice here, surely the avid support from Fine Gael for the scheme should raise suspicions among some in their ranks. – Yours, etc,
JIM O’SULLIVAN,
Rathedmond,
Sligo.
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Sir, – I am listening on the radio to a Government Minister justifying jacking up the price of solid fuel and splashing out my taxes to people with 25,000 handy to insulate their homes. The reality of rural Ireland is a wind farm away from the world Eamon Ryan and the rest of them live in.
No doubt I should shop around. – Yours, etc,
GARETH SMYTH,
Louisburgh,
Mayo.
Sir, – I fully agree with Andrew Ennis (Letters, February 9th). I too am a young professional, earning more than the average wage yet priced out of buying or renting a home of my own while being, according to Government policy, too well-off to help but well-off enough that I can be squeezed more to fill the State coffers. Why, for example, are the banks bailed out by the taxpayers a decade ago not being pressured or forced to offer mortgage credits for the full retrofitting cost, considering the increase in value this will give homes?
Does anybody in Leinster House have any solution to a problem other than to hand out blank cheques with the taxpayer’s name on it?
This grant scheme is nothing but a scheme for the comfort and future security of the haves to be funded by the have-nots at the expense of their own. – Yours, etc,
AARON CASSIDY,
Chapelizod,
Dublin 20.
Sir, – Your report "Warning over retrofitting targets" (News, February 9th) states that the number of skilled workers needed to complete the programme is "estimated at about 17, 000, quadruple the level currently available".
On that basis, the success of the project is in grave danger before before it even gets off the ground. – Yours, etc,
TADHG McCARTHY,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.