Criticism that retrofitting of Longford housing will take ‘50 years’

The retrofitting of just 39 houses last year by Longford County Council out of a total housing stock of over 2,200 has been criticised by Cathaoirleach Mark Casey who estimated it would take "around 50 years" to retrofit all of them.

Climate coordinator Bernard Shea delivered a presentation to councillors at last week's June meeting of Longford County Council on the positive environmental developments being rolled out from the Climate Action Plan 2024-to-2029.

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Mr Shea stated housing is one of their most important programmes and vital from a climate perspective and in 2024 a total of 82 houses were added to the council's housing stick bringing it to over 2,200.

"Twenty-nine of those houses were in Longford [town] and 53 of them were in locations around the county," he added.

Mr Shea said those houses were built to a very high A-rating standard he also referred to how the local authority had retrofitted 39 social houses with 27 units upgraded to an A3 energy rating, while the others were upgraded to a B1 and B2 energy rating.

Mr Shea said there had been 'great progress' on new Electric Vehicle (EV) charging points in county Longford and huge strides in terms of active travel and cycleways.

Cllr Casey said there seemed to be some positives but "the only negative out of all that is that 39 houses out of 2,200 houses have been retrofitted" so far.

"At that rate it will take us around 50 years to retrofit all of our houses in Longford County Council, which probably does not make for good reading.

"There are a lot of houses out there that need retrofitting, I know it's an expensive business but we need to set a more ambitious target than 39 houses a year."

Mr Shea replied and stated it was a 'good start'.

"That is only one year, it's a multi-annual programme, but you are right it is expensive."

Cllr Casey stated a better start would be 200 houses and added, "We really need to get these done now."

During the presentation Mr Shea outlined that six additional Electric Vehicle (EV) charging points had been installed since the local authority entered into a partnership with EV company EasyGo and from a low base they are 'slowly getting there'.

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He stated that the project has delivered six rapid charging points in Longford town, four in Granard, two in Ballymahon, two in Lanesboro and in addition to that Aldi added four chargers while the Dog Warden became the first council employee to drive their first electric vehicle.

The Climate Action Plan was adopted by the last local authority on February 14, 2024 and it contains 53 actions in areas such as governance, leadership, lived environment, natural environment, community resilience and transition and sustainability and resource management.

Mr Shea said they had an official launch on March 20 last and under phase one of the Community Climate Action Fund, which is underway, Longford County Council had €328,000 to distribute to 15 community projects.

Mr Shea said phase two is expected to be launched this summer and anybody who is interested in applying was advised to contact the local authority who can assist with the application.

Mr Shea spoke about some examples of the 15 projects that are being worked on this year such as solar panels at Rathcline GAA, a community garden in Lus Na Gréine in Granard.

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Councillors heard as of the end of 2024 some 82% of 6,019 lights had been upgraded to LED lighting which is much more efficient.

Mr Shea stated another big feature was active travel and in 2024 Longford County Council completed 1,850 metres of cycle lanes in the Ballinalee Road and 980 metres on the Battery Road as part of the official opening of the Ballinalee Road Cycle Lanes.