Bolstered retrofitting among environmental groups' key budget demands

Groups are calling for all housholds on the working family payment to be included in the Government’s 100% free retrofit scheme. Picture: iStock

A major ramping up of funds for home retrofitting, renewable energy planning, and biodiversity restoration should be key elements to the budget, according to major environmental non-governmental organisations.

Friends of the Earth said there are nine things that should be prioritised in Finance Minister Michael McGrath and Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe's budget announcement on Tuesday, including increasing retrofitting of 25% of social homes by 2030 to including them all.

Along with SVP, Threshold, Age Action, and Social Justice Ireland, FoE said it wants to see an increase in the fuel allowance rate, as well as widening the eligibility for the scheme to include households on the working family payment.

This would also give them access to the Government’s 100% free retrofit scheme, FoE said.

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The organisation also teamed up late last month with Wind Energy Ireland in a rare joint call for the Government to significantly up its investment in renewable energy.

FoE said it wants to see an increase in "funding for staff in relevant State agencies and departments to ensure that they have enough ecologists, for example, to progress their planning and regulatory work on a zero-carbon electricity system in a timely fashion".

Renewable energy industry leaders echoed the call of the Environmental Pillar, which advocates on behalf of Ireland's environmental NGOs, for the establishment of an €8m climate nature and restoration fund.

Such a fund would come from "windfall corporation taxes to finance future climate and nature infrastructural and capital investments, including nature-based solutions", the Environmental Pillar stated.

It also called for more staffing for the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) in the face of the national and global biodiversity crisis.

FoE also warned that obligations under the EU’s forthcoming Nature Restoration Law, which passed this summer following a titanic political tussle in Europe between various factions, would likely mean Ireland needs to provide €300m a year as the decade progresses.

Rail investment

Meanwhile, Iarnród Éireann has unveiled a climate action plan that it claims would slash its emissions by 51% by 2030 if implemented.

It said that it aims to do so despite passenger numbers vastly increasing by the end of the decade.

Passenger journeys of 80m a year are targeted by 2030, up from a pre-covid high of 50m journeys, while a doubling of rail freight volumes is anticipated, Iarnród Éireann said.

It said that it would achieve its 51% emissions target through a reduced reliance on diesel through alternative fuels on existing fleets, while transitioning to an electric-powered fleet.

All diesel fleets will operate with at least a 35% biofuel/hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) blend, as well as introducing the likes of green hydrogen and a range of other electrification measures.

Iarnród Éireann chief executive Jim Meade said: "Rail has always been the most sustainable mode of land transport, and now we have the opportunity and the commitment to enhance this further. 

"Our investment programme, funded by the National Transport Authority under the National Development Plan, is critical, with European funding also supporting our Cork Area Commuter Rail plan."

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