Laois Offaly Centre of Excellence good for jobs and households insists Minister

A Laois Offaly training centre is playing a big part in creating green jobs and preparing the way for householders to retrofit their homes.

That's according to Laois /Offaly based Minister of State Pippa Hackett who, with Joe Cunningham Chief Executive Laois Offaly Education and Training Board visited Mount Lucas Near Zero Energy Building (NZEB) & Retrofit Centre of Excellence. 

“Facilities like the Centre of Excellence in Mount Lucas in Offaly, have allowed for the number of workers enrolled in the NZEVB and Retrofit upskilling programmes to soar in 2022,” said Minister Hackett.

She said 2,034 people have enrolled in NZEB and retrofitting programmes in 2022, a five-fold increase on 2020 figures. Minister Hackett claimed This is a major advance in creating new green jobs and is an important step towards halving Ireland’s carbon emissions by 2030.

"Near Zero Energy Buildings are so energy efficient that their net energy usage is nearly zero and use renewable sources as their dominant energy source. The government has set a target to retrofit 500,000 homes by 2030 and €29m was allocated to retrofitting skills training programmes in March 2022 as part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan," said the Minister.

She continued that training is important to households who want to cut costs.

“People across the Midlands want to make their homes warmer, healthier and ultimately cheaper to run. Increased training in this area will make it easier for people to access those with the skills to do this work; benefitting both the environment and people struggling with the rising cost of living” the Minister continued.

PICTURED: Minister Pippa Hackett with John Kelly, Manager National Construction Training Centre, Mount Lucas and Joe Cunningham Chief Executive, Laois and Offaly ETB inside Mount Lucas NZEB & Retrofit Centre of Excellence.

“I’m delighted to see such a strong uptake of skilled people to meet this demand and that the Centre of Excellence in Mount Lucas is leading the way in that regard. I want to encourage even more people in the Midlands to take up these free and flexible programmes offering valuable skills in an area where there will be green, sustainable jobs for many years to come” concluded Minister Hackett.

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A statement said that in addition to the Centre of Excellence in Mount Lucas, the retrofitting training is also provided in further education facilities in Cork, Mayo, Wexford and Limerick, with more provision coming later this year and in 2024. The courses are free with flexible schedules including evening and weekend classes.