The CEO of Irish Rural Link, Seamus Boland, told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development recently that low income households in rural areas have a “deeper income inadequacy” than their urban counterparts.
This he said, is mainly due to higher energy and transport costs.
According to the Boland: “Over the past number of years, other factors such as: location; tenure; household composition, year of construction and type of fuel used, are now considered to also contribute to it.
“The recent energy crisis highlighted the vulnerability of low income and rural households to high energy prices, with research showing that these households were most at risk of energy poverty.”
Rural households
The CEO continued: “The size and nature of the housing stock, especially older housing stock, make rural households more vulnerable to experiencing energy poverty.
“The Central Statistics Office (CSO) survey on income and living conditions figures continue to show low income households in receipt of a social welfare payment unable to adequately heat their home, or having gone without heat at some stage throughout the year.
“The annual Minimum Essential Standard of Living (MESL) shows low income households in rural areas have a deeper income inadequacy than their urban counterparts.
“Cumulatively, from March 2020 to March 2023, the MESL home energy costs for rural-based households increased by 75.8%.”
Census 2022 figures, Boland said, showed that over 21,000 households had no central heating.
“There is still a high dependency of peat including turf as the main source of heat in homes, at almost 68,000 households. This is higher among households over the age-of-65, at over 28,000.
“Almost 7,000 over-65s are living in homes with no central heating. This should be a grave concern, as it brings with it other social and health issues,” he stressed.
The CEO has called for more targeted approaches to the retrofitting programme to bring low income households and rural households into the initiative.
In 2023, under the fully funded energy upgrades scheme, 13,983 applications were received, with just 5,898 properties upgraded, he said.
“More effort must be made to ensure that households most at risk of energy poverty are prioritised. Targeting these households, as well as the worst performing homes first, by prioritising older homes with a BER rating of E, F or G on the waiting list, must begin to happen.”
Many of the barriers that existed when retrofitting first began are still in existence as programmes develop, the CEO said.
“These include: lack of awareness and knowledge; cost; access to finance; length of time to complete work; disruption and inconvenience; dependence on a landlord or local authority to carry out the work, and shortage of contractors and tradespeople.”
The CEO said that Irish Rural Link had recommendations to improve the uptake and rollout of retrofitting rural homes.
These include: awareness raising roadshows; one-stop clinics; a community outreach programme; access to finance with a greater role for credit unions; a review of income thresholds for fuel allowance for the over 70s, and more training of contractors and tradespeople.
The full debate can be found on the Oireachtas website.