My dad lived in Drimnagh when he was young. Before he was born, his family lived in a one-room tenement on Digges Street, but in the early 1940s, they moved to a newly-built Dublin Corporation house on Sperrin Road. Three bedrooms, running water and an indoor toilet, a garden of their own.
As the years went by, the council built fewer and fewer new houses, and they sold off a lot of their stock to tenants. A good deal for the tenants, but a bad deal for people who need social housing. Somewhere along the line, we started to think that housing policy should be about creating new homeowners, that government should be helping people onto a property investment ladder. But housing policy should be about providing people with good quality, affordable, secure places to live, not investments.
Since the Green Party went into government, we have started building cost-rental housing, and it is massively popular. But we need to build thousands of these homes every year, not hundreds, all over the city, so people have homes they can afford, in places they want to live, and aren’t at the mercy of private landlords.
In October 2022, we got external insulation on our house, and added solar panels. We already had double-glazing, and I’d added more attic insulation in September. Our house went from a C rating in the summer to a B1 when the work was finished.
Over the winter, we used 40% less gas than the year before (some of that is because we switched to an electric cooker). There were still cold days, when we’d have the heating on for 3 or 4 hours, but in general the house stayed warmer. The mornings never seemed as cold.
Winter is the worst time for solar – we use around 200 kWh a month, and in December the panels only generated 40. We actually used more electricity in November/December 2022 than in 2021, because of the electric cooker. But every month the days get longer and brighter, I think over the course of the year we’ll generate about ¾ as much electricity as we use. We don’t have a battery, so some of that will be exported back to the grid – we get paid 24 cent for each unit we send back.
Altogether, the work cost us €20,000, 13 for the insulation and 7 for the solar panels. The solar panels will pay for themselves first, in maybe 7 or 8 years. They are guaranteed for 25 years (and will keep producing electricity after that, just not as much), so they really make sense if you can afford the upfront costs. (If you can’t, look up Solar as a Service, for companies that will put in the panels and charge you a monthly fee) The insulation will take longer to pay off, but will last as long as the house.
Getting Your Home Retrofitted
The SEAI page has a list of the grants available for home energy improvements. In a terraced house, there are grants of €3,500 for external insulation, in a semi-detached house it’s €6,000. Solar PV grants start at €900 and go up to €2,400. We have 3kWp solar panels, the only thing I’d do differently about the project would be to get more panels, 4kWp or even 5kWp.
All that does presume that you own your own home, and can put some of your money towards the work. People in private rented accommodation are in a real bind – they can’t get the work done themselves, and their landlords aren’t bothered because they won’t benefit. If you’re in a council house, the situation is better. There are hundreds of Dublin City Council houses being retrofitted at the moment, but there are 12,000 homes to do across the city so it will take some time.
Most of the government funding for retrofits is being spent on free retrofits, rather than grants for partial funding. The Warmer Homes Scheme is a free scheme for people who own their own homes, but are in receipt of certain welfare payments – Fuel Allowance, Working Family payment, Disability allowance, and others. The scheme pays for attic and wall insulation, and can include windows and heating systems. Like other retrofit projects – like all construction projects right now – there is a shortage of people to do the work, but you should send in your application if eligible and get the process started.
On St Brigid’s Day, the Lord Mayor of Dublin held an event in the Mansion House called Nature in the City. Speakers included Professor Jane Stout from Trinity College, co-founder of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan, Lorraine Bull, the Dublin City Council Biodiversity Officer, Hannah Hamilton, advisor to the Minister for Heritage, and Tina Roche, from Community Foundation for Ireland.
When we talk about the climate crisis, we often focus on the issue of carbon dioxide emissions and rising global temperatures, and all that goes with that – and those are serious enough issues on their own. The loss of global biodiversity is just as serious, and of course the two are related. Rising temperatures, on land and at sea, are destroying ecosystems and killing species. Clearing forested land, or draining peatland, for agriculture removes wildlife habitat but also turns carbon sinks into carbon emitters.
As one of the panelists above said, maybe we think more about emissions because they are easier to fit into an economic framework. Building wind farms instead of gas plants, building railway lines instead of roads… these are engineering projects that can be designed in an office, spending decisions that can be put on a balance sheet. But the best way to protect nature is to leave it alone, and not attempt to extract anything from it. To treat it as an end in itself, not a resource to be managed with a quantifiable payback.
At a local level, there’s a lot you can do. If you have a garden, don’t use weedkillers or pesticides, and leave some space for nature in the garden – a patch that you don’t mow, or mow just once a year. Some weeds will grow, but they may be the plants that butterflies and other insects need to lay eggs on, or feed on. Plant native trees and flowers, because they are the plants that native wildlife has adapted to live with. See the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan site for more ideas.
Outside your home, write to your local parks department, and local politicians, asking for more space for nature. Again, ask that areas be left unmowed, and that native trees and flowers are planted, instead of non-native and sterile ornamental plants. Local councils say that they have to keep things ‘tidy’ or people will complain. Let them know that you’ll complain if they tidy away the wildlife.
On a global level, two of the major threats to wildlife are agriculture and intensive fishing. Our high-meat diet means that land is cleared for animals to graze, and more land is cleared for supplemental food crops. Factory fishfarms, and factory fishing ships, are wiping out sea life. Reducing the meat and fish in your diet, and pressuring the government to stop supporting destructive practices, are two steps everyone can take.
