‘Unfair’ €104 boiler charge passed

People living in council houses in Cork county, including those who are elderly or disabled, face having to fork out an extra €104 next year for “outdated and regressive” boiler service charges.

The hefty new charge was announced this week as part of Cork County Council’s 2021 Budget and was met with significant resistance from elected members at County Hall.

Cork County Fianna Fáil leader Cllr Seamus McGrath was the first of a long list of members to oppose the new charge, saying that the plan was unfair and doesn’t take into account a person’s ability to pay.

Cllr McGrath said: “Take for example a pensioner living alone, paying the minimum rent. They will now be asked to pay €2 extra a week. Equally, people on a disability allowance will have to do the same. That’s €104 extra a year.”

Cllr McGrath said that he and his party believe there is a fairer way to address the issue and that boiler charges should be a thing of the past. He said: “For example, new homes coming onstream will not have boilers.”

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Houses that are retrofit will likely not have boilers.

“There is a rent review coming up which may not necessarily lead to rent increases, it could lead to decreases. As part of that rent review, we propose that there be a percentage adjustment to rent applied at that time, so there would be just one adjustment to tenants.”

Cllr McGrath stressed that a percentage rent adjustment would be progressive in nature and proportionate to a person’s ability to pay.

“We believe the adjustment should be for general maintenance which would include boilers,” said the councillor.

He added: “That way, every household will benefit from general maintenance, whether they have a boiler or not. We feel this is a far fairer way to do it.”

A spokesperson from Active Retirement Ireland said that whenever measures to address deficits are announced, “we have to be mindful of those who are on a fixed income and have little capacity to deal with extra costs”.

“I hope Cork County Council will ensure that no older person ends up at increased risk of poverty because of this measure, as it doesn’t seem on the surface to take into account ability to pay,” the spokesperson added.

Independent Cllr Declan Hurley agreed with Cllr McGrath, insisting the Independent side of the house was “not happy” with the new charge.

Elected members Cathal Rasmussen, Pat Hayes, Frank O’Flynn and Ian Doyle were amongst those in support of Cllr McGrath’s proposal.

Responding to the proposal, Cork County Head of Finance Lorraine Lynch said: “We need to recover the costs of the maintenance for these heating systems. There’s €650,000 provided for income in the budget for that. What we have proposed is that we will apply the charge so that no one person is taking a bigger hit in terms of their income and their ability to pay.”

Cllr McGrath said he was satisfied with the response and that he believes that a percentage application to the rent in the new year will bring in the needed €650,000. He added that there was no need to put his proposal to a vote.

The Cork County Budget 2021 was passed unanimously on Monday in County Hall.