The EU’s Net Zero Cities Programme allocated a €1m grant to Galway City Council and Northern & Western Regional Assembly, with the aim of encouraging 250 households to begin the retrofitting process.
“The government has to be serious about it,” said Cllr Noel Larkin, independent councillor representing Galway East, in response to the latest retrofitting plan.
The goal of this plan, according to the Council, is to help households reduce their energy bills and carbon emissions.
A good starting point
Although Cllr Larkin said the plan is “a good starting point”, he pointed out that the government needs to do more to incentivise people to join it.
He raised the issue of Value Added Tax (VAT), which is 13.5 per cent for household retrofitting at the moment and, according to him, should be cut to zero.
He said the government has to reduce taxes to give people an incentive to participate in the plan.
“The government is expecting everybody to do everything themselves. They just keep taxing people heavily,” he said.
Cllr Larkin used the example of shifting from fossil-fuel-powered vehicles to electric ones to stress his point, saying “They want people to change from petrol cars or diesel cars to electric cars but they have no incentive to do that.”
He added, “Why would people pay twice the price for an electric car when they get no tax-free allowance?”
Optimistic
However, Fine Gael councillor Frank Fahy, representing Galway Central, painted an optimistic picture of the plan.
He said there was a good “turnout” in the plan’s launching session which took place in the Westside Resource Centre this week.
Regarding the issue of retrofitting cost, Cllr Fahy said people who have limited sources of income can get their homes retrofitted free of charge.
He said that the government now needs to let more people know about the plan and make sure it is “used to its maximum capacity”.
If the plan rolled out as expected, he said, the Council would ask for more funding to “continue the project over a number of years” and to expand it across the city.
Cost of heating
“I imagine if it’s successful, the cost of heating houses would be down from €2000 per year to €500,” said Cllr Fahy.
Apart from helping households retrofit their homes, the programme’s fund would also support the provision of retrofitting training courses for those unemployed.
Westside has been designated as a “Decarbonisation Zone”. According to the Council, greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced in these zones by at least 7 per cent per year toward 2030 to meet the targets set by the country’s Climate Action Bill 2021.
The Bill which aims to achieve carbon neutrality across the Republic “by no later than 2050”.