Offaly's councillors shoot down plan to ban domestic oil boilers

A number of Offaly's County Councillors angrily shot down a plan to ban domestic oil boilers during a recent meeting.

Cllr Ken Smollen told Monday's meeting of Offaly County Council that a local oil distributor showed him a recent letter which stated that the government is planning to ban oil ranges / boilers from homes by 2025.

“This to me is madness, because 700,000 people across the country depend on oil for heating their homes. There's also the fact that retrofitting will cost people €56,000 per house. These things will further burden homeowners at a time when they are already seriously burdened. According to the letter the government want to have biofuel instead of oil in homes. This is coming from the Green Party. And I hope Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will totally reject this plan."

Cllr Tony McCormack said the Fianna Fáil section of the County Council has contacted Deputy Barry Cowen about this matter.

“It's mad to think that it's being proposed that everyone will have to change all our oil boilers. The timing for the proposal, during an oil and cost of living crisis couldn't be worse.”

Cllr Neil Feighery said the proposal mightn't be as bad as some are saying.

“I am not sure about this,” he remarked, “but as far as I can make out, it is my understanding that the oil boiler ban will apply just to new builds. However, I would be concerned about the proposal nonetheless, because it will negatively impact on one of the county's big employers, Grant Engineering."

The ban in fact will also affect the replacement of existing oil boilers.