Tánaiste admits ‘difficulty’ in getting young people to apply for construction courses
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has admitted that there is a slow take up of construction courses.
The Government today launched a major retrofitting scheme which new grants and schemes which will see the State subsidise between 50pc and 80pc of retrofitting costs.
However, this will require a significant increase in the current construction workforce and the Government plans to increase the number of training places in Nearly Zero Energy Building (NZEB) skills adding an additional 2,650 places, to bring the total number to 4,550 by the end of 2022.
However, the Tánaiste said that from speaking to Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris, that there is a slow take up of construction courses.
“Speaking to Minister Harris this morning, there was a sense that we were actually finding a difficulty in getting people to go forward for these courses and to apply for apprenticeships,” he said.
“So we have a job of work to do there for sure.
“We’re really trying to get the message across to young people, to students, to young people, now in secondary school, this is a really good career choice if you care about climate change.”
Senior ministers this morning signed off on the new scheme, which will see homeowners, who fully retrofit their homes, getting subsidies which will cover 50pc of the cost, while smaller projects such as filling wall cavities or insulating the attic will be subsidised by up to 80pc.
The Government believes that this will lead to significant decreases in heating and electricity bills for households.
Retrofitting will be overseen by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) which will provide ‘one stop shop’ services to assess what works can be carried out and assign contractors.
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said that the grants will vary for apartments as they have different insulation apartments and have “different characteristics”.
He said that the SEAI will expertly assess apartments and identify what works could be carried out.
A low-cost loan will also be put in place by Government at the end of summer this year to help homeowners retrofit their homes.
The revamped schemes will be rolled out in the coming weeks.
Under the National Development Plan, the Government has committed to retrofitting 500,000 homes by 2030 with an investment of €8bn.
Source Independent.ie
