The Government's retrofitting scheme is geared towards homeowners but there is very little thought given to and even less protection for renters in private rented accommodation. If a landlord decides to retrofit his or her property, he or she can ask the tenant to move out. One might ask where the tenant will go. When that work is done and the BER rating has improved in the property, however, the landlord is then exempt from the limits in the rent pressure zone, RPZ, and can hike up the rents.

Although by law the landlord can invite the tenant to move back into property, if he or she has hiked up the rents, the tenant can no longer remain in that property because the rents have been hiked up. At the minute, property websites are advertising this loophole as a selling point for properties. Threshold and the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, have said this could potentially be a big problem with this scheme. What is the Government going to do to afford protections to renters in private rental accommodation under this scheme and address the problems it may pose for them?

The first point I will make is that the retrofit scheme is very positive. It will provide very significant resources to households generally across the country in terms of insulation and reducing energy costs for ordinary people over time. It will take time to get to critical mass.

A raft of protections have been introduced legislatively by the Minister, whom I will alert to this issue. I know he is aware of it and I will discuss it with him.