Retrofit DIY

Sometimes the statements people make are so ludicrous, the only possible response is to collapse into the nearest chair and clutch your belly so it doesn’t laugh itself off the rest of you. This is the case with two items in the Irish Times this morning.

The first is in their editorial, headed ‘Climate Action Plan: An immense national project’. (Nice little boot applied to those northerners who think they’re part of the Irish nation).

In this editorial, the IT pen-pushers note:

‘A massive retrofitting programme is planned. As well as informing homeowners about this, State supports will be needed to have any chance of meeting the target of retrofitting 500,000 homes by 2030. Households will also be asked to cut their car journeys – easier for some than others – and to transition to electric vehicles.’

Let’s skip lightly past the scarcity of chargers for EVs throughout the south, because if we linger, we’ll realise that range anxiety  – ie, where the hell is there a charger, I’m down to near six miles left – will hold back huge numbers from investing in an EV. And have you seen the price of these silently-moving sweeties? 

But let’s as I say pass by and focus on those half-million homes. In another part of the same issue, The Irish Times has a headlined article ‘Retrofitting bill could come to average of €56,000 per home’ . The article talks up the government subsidy – which is still unclear – and admits that even with it , there’d still be ‘a substantial shortfall’.

 OK, let’s go mad and suggest that the Dublin government will supply, what, say 35% of the funding. That would leave somewhere more than €20,000 to come out of the home-owner’s pocket. None of us wants to see the world burning, but do you think the average Sean or Maire Citizen has that kind of money? Or even could afford to borrow it at really low rates?  Most people in the south get by with not a helluva lot in their pocket at the end of the month. Some have so little, they don’t even have a home to retrofit and sleep on the street.

It’s past time the newspaper of record got its head out of its own posterior, did the maths and told the people how cock-eyed this let-the-people-retrofit philosophy is.

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__, _ go mad and suggest that the Dublin government will supply, what, say 35% of the funding. That would leave somewhere near €40,000 to come out of the home-owner’s pocket. None of us wants to see the world burning, but do you think they average Sean or Maire Citizen has that kind of money? Or even could afford to borrow it at really low rates?  Most people in the south get by with not a helluva lot in their pocket at the end of the month. Some have so little, they don’t even have a home to retrofit.

I think it’s time the newpaper of record got its head out of its own posterior, did the maths and told the people how cock-eyes this let-the-people-retrofit philosophy is.