Dr. Ciaran Byrne:

On behalf of the SEAI, I would like to extend my condolences to Paul's family as well. I thank Deputy Ó Cúiv for the questions. I have my colleagues with me, so I will start and then I will invite them in because there was quite a range of detailed questions. As the committee is aware, the warmer homes scheme started off around 2007 or 2008 from a community perspective when we were doing exactly the kind of thing the Deputy talked about, which was much lower level retrofits - putting in draught strips, heating, insulation, lightbulbs and so on. Over the years, the scheme has migrated away from the energy poverty to the energy efficiency side of things.

In 2013, the average cost for an intervention in a home was approximately €1,800. Last year, for regular houses, across the board, it was approximately €24,000 and we are increasing that. Where we have to change a heating system as well, the figure is close to €40,000. We have moved to a much deeper intervention in the scheme, which means we can do fewer outputs and hence we are building up a list.

The scheme is predicated on six social welfare criteria. If a person qualifies for any of those criteria they can apply for the scheme. We have an online and a paper-based application form. We also have a contact centre to help people make their application. Not that many years ago we were advertising through the Department of Social Protection for people to come on the scheme. Unfortunately, two significant things happened in relation to the waiting list. The first was Covid. We were at a complete standstill for 13 months. Applications were coming in but we could do no work, so we had a large backlog to address after Covid. We, like all other parts of the construction sector - and we are a subset of the construction sector - hit supply chain and labour constraints.

The other thing of significance regarding the warmer home scheme is that we had a cost-of-living crisis and an energy crisis in 2022. This was a shocking year because of those two factors. The applications for the warmer homes scheme increased and have remained at a significantly higher level. In my opening paragraph I referenced that the rate of applications to the scheme as at the end of last year is about 1,100 per month. We have increased our outputs from approximately 2,400 deeper retrofits in 2021 to almost 6,000 last year. We are trying to build more pathways to try to increase the level of output further.

I invite my colleague, Mr. John Randles, to talk a little bit more about the waiting list and the delays.