Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On subhead B4, when will homeowners start to get credit? When will the export tariff scheme be in place and operational? On the same subhead, the targets for retrofits were 21,544 in 2021 and 19,400 in 2022. I ask the Minister of State to speak to that, please.

On outputs, the target for the number of lower income households provided with energy efficiency upgrades is lower for this year than last. In 2021, the target was 5,800 and in 2022 it is 4,500. I know there is a note on that but I ask the Minister of State to speak on it. It states that the number of homes is lower than target for the previous year but this is because of a shift to deeper energy efficiency measures resulting in more energy and carbon dioxide savings. I raise that in the context of the national retrofitting plan that we will hopefully see later today. Sinn Féin specifically asked questions around the options to achieve reductions in emissions. For example, what is the difference between 20,000 houses moving to a BER C2 versus 20,000 houses moving to a BER B2? Is a different approach by the Department planned for in these figures? The headline figure is still to have 500,000 deep retrofits and 400,000 heat pumps installed. Is it planned to do this in a different way and, if so, are there cost implications from that?

Are there targets for the expansion of the sustainable energy community, SEC, programme? I know there are targets for 2030. How do they relate to 2022? What kind of expansion do we hope or expect to see? From meeting members of some of the sustainable energy communities, I know there was talk of a new funding model or type of grant or fund where sustainable energy communities would be rewarded for good progress and the amount of retrofits done in a community. They referred to it as a LEAF or local energy assessment fund. I do not know if that rings a bell with the Minister of State. What are the plans with that?

The €100 electricity rebate is coming from departmental energy efficiency funding and broadband funds. From where exactly is that money coming? What implications will that have for the roll-out of the affected schemes? I am particularly interested in how those on long waiting lists for retrofitting works will be prioritised in year one.