The Debrief
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance.
And you're very welcome to The Debrief. We're going to look back on some of the big stories of the week. And today I'm joined in the studio by tech editor with The Irish Independent, Adrian Weckler. Journalist and consumer columnist with The Irish Examiner, Katrina Redmond is here. And school principal and host of If I Were the Minister for Education podcast, Simon Lewis. And you're all very welcome to... to the programme. Thank you for being with us. So we heard this week that households are facing around €2,000 in additional costs in bills, everything from food to insurance and of course energy going up.
What are the biggest stories of the week discussed in this episode?
So the question is, should people be given more help to do things like install solar panels? Adrian, I'll come to you first on that one.
Yeah, well, I have a very strong view on this. And the answer to your last question is yes, I think it's an absolute no brainer. Start with solar panels. So there's about one hundred and seventy seven thousand homes in Ireland out of the one point two million homes that can take solar panels that have solar panels. Now, they are the people who could afford to spend between seven thousand dollars. and €15,000 roughly to put them on. They got the SEAI grant of between €1,800 and €3,000. It's €1,800 now. They're the ones who could afford it, who are now benefiting from, you know, €150 electricity bills, €100 electricity bills, while the people who couldn't afford to do that or weren't motivated to do that are now getting €500 electricity bills.
It is a no-brainer.
And all that money that we heard about this morning that has been collected.
532 million euros for the Climate Action Fund. Which was collected on a 2% levy, which is sitting in government coffers, which wasn't spent. So it's a no brainer. People have different views on solar and they're in the weeds arguments about the origin of the panels and the contribution they make to the overall footprint for the ordinary household. And not every household can take solar. But for the ordinary household that can take solar, it is absolute no-brainer to put panels on.
How are households impacted by rising costs this week?
And it's incomprehensible why the subsidy is only €1,800 and why the government doesn't roll out.
Yeah, especially if we want to try and get ahead, Simon, of this increase in costs that we're all going to be facing now, €2,000 is the estimate. You've done this, have you? Have you done the retrofit?
Yeah, we're actually in the process of it right now in our own house. We applied for that one stop shop scheme and we were lucky enough that our house is eligible for it. So we're sort of in the process of getting solar panels into the house. We're moving from our oil heating to a heat pump, getting the doors, the door done. So it's, you know, we're very lucky that we were able to afford to do that.
So how was the process?
Should the government provide more support for solar panel installations?
Was it was it complicated?
No, like really, really simple. We rang around the various companies. Someone came to our house and told us what we needed to do. And we just have to wait now for them to be ready.
And do they look after the application process for the grants then as well for you? Absolutely.
Basically, yeah, everything, everything. It's it's been really straightforward, probably the most straightforward thing we've ever done in our house.
And hopefully you'll get to the point before the winter where you'll be saving this winter on your bills, which is where, Katrina, everybody would would want to be. But people, some people will not be able to do that.
Yeah, and I think this €2,000 cost per family that we're talking about here, I think it's really important to remember that there are people in middle to higher range salaries who can absorb it by dropping some of the non-essential purchases. But the families who are on the lower income range, they're the families who can't adapt and adopt a €2,000 hit to their finances.
I would argue most people in the middle can't afford to either.
No, and I think that's very true, because when you're committed to rent and to mortgage, it's very difficult to adapt your budget to take into account for an additional 2000 euro per year.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–0:40
2
What are the biggest stories of the week discussed in this episode?
0:40–2:11
3
How are households impacted by rising costs this week?
2:11–2:54
4
Should the government provide more support for solar panel installations?
2:54–11:13
5
What is the process for retrofitting homes with solar panels?
11:13–15:27
6
How do rising costs affect families with low incomes?
15:27–17:49
7
What are the implications of the €2,000 cost per family discussed?
17:49–20:37