COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
Monday, May 10, 2021
MOTION NO. 14
MOTION: Councillor M. Duff
Following on from a question regarding the number of Maintenance calls received the during the period 4th January 2021 to 14th February 2021, I understand that 911 maintenance/repair requests for central heating systems, were received. Customers are informed at time of complaint that repairs may take up to ten days. This is not an acceptable level of service to customers, many of them in their very senior years, and needs to be urgently addressed, especially during the very cold weather spells, which are now more frequent, and this Council calls for a review of the age and status of the heating boilers in its Housing stock and that an immediate programme of Service and Replacement be put in place and that Councillors should be given updates on progress, on a quarterly basis.
REPORT:
The Council categorises all requests for repairs depending on the nature of the maintenance issue arising. These categories are emergency, urgent, routine or cyclical. Faults to central heating systems are deemed “Urgent” with a response timeframe of up to 10 working days from the date the incident is reported although contactors typically inspect and resolve issues within a 3–5-day period but with prioritisation for older and/or vulnerable persons where possible and where delays are expected in arranging a response, storage heaters can be provided to such persons.
The majority of the faults reported consist of supply issues, user error or minor repairs which can be repaired at the time of inspection but for exceptional cases where extensive repairs or replacement is required, it may require a further time period to order replacement parts or arrange replacement works with a contractor. Due to the large variation of boilers types and age, operated within the housing stock, it is not possible to maintain an inventory of all parts.
The planned maintenance programme for heating systems includes annual service/inspection and certification of each boiler (approximately 9,700 boilers). The annual inspection reports highlight any additional maintenance that may be required outside the scope of an annual service including boiler replacement. In 2020, major boiler faults resulted in 166 boiler replacements.
An annual budget of €1.25m is assigned in 2021 for planned boiler/heating system replacements with a further €375,000 provided for boiler servicing.
In addition, as part of the recently announced Energy Efficiency Retrofit Programme (EERP), the Housing Maintenance section will undertake "deep" retrofit, energy efficiency upgrades to homes that will include the replacement of some gas boilers with heat pump/air-to-water heating systems. Funding of €3.1million has been provided to retrofit an initial 117 properties in 2021. Funding for the EERP is expected to increase in 2022 and beyond providing for additional heating system upgrades as part of a proposed 10-year programme. As part of our planning for the EERP, data is being compiled on the energy efficiency of all Council rented homes including an updated assessment of the current heating systems in place to inform the best approach to the ongoing energy efficiency retrofit and planned maintenance programmes.