THE DEPARTMENT of Energy has said the new Home Energy Saving Scheme will begin at the end of March, earlier than anticipated.
The confirmation of the earlier start date allayed concerns among companies providing insulation for homes and business, who said their work has dried up since the scheme was announced.
According to the owner of one medium-sized insulation company who did not wish to be named, he had to lay off 12 employees on a short-term basis because customers opted to wait for the scheme to come into being.
There were concerns that the scheme would not be fully in operation until the summer, by which time many of the companies providing the service would find themselves in financial difficulties.
However, those concerns were alleviated yesterday by the confirmation by Sustainable Energy Ireland, which administers the scheme, that it would commence on March 23th.
A spokeswoman at the Department of Energy said the decision to grant-aid insulation work would be done immediately and without delay, thus putting no bar on work commencing.
Fine Gael TD John Deasy, who highlighted the issue this week, said the situation should never have arisen.
“The Government was anxious to deliver good news but did not think it through . . . If they are taking steps to rectify that’s fine but they need to move on it immediately or if they don’t many people will find themselves with no jobs.”
