Dr. Ciaran Byrne:

We have increased significantly since 2018 and 2019. For information, 2019 saw the first of the climate action plans being put in place. The Deputy is alluding to how, as I would describe it, we are at the early part with the aeroplane taking off. We effectively need to perform an upward spiral. Depending on how we go, we have to hit between 65,000 and 75,000 B2 retrofits every year for the last three or four years of the decade to reach our 2030 target.

Depending on how we go, we have to hit somewhere in the region of between 65,000 and 75,000 B2 retrofits every year for the last three or four years of the decade to meet our 2030 target. Our target, as identified in the climate action plan, is 500,000 reftrofits to B2 standard, and 400,000 heat pumps installed. In terms of numbers, in 2021 we did around 15,500 retrofits. It must be borne in mind that what happened in 2020 and the whole Covid period threw everything up in the air. The comparative year is probably 2019. In 2021, we did around 15,000 retrofits. In 2022, we did around 26,000 retrofits. In 2023, the year just gone, we did 47,000 retrofits. We are seeing an exponential curve in the amount of retrofits we have done. The number of B2 retrofits done is lagging behind because not all retrofits get to a B2 standard. Even still, we have seen somewhere in the region of 17,500 B2 retrofits done this year.

In February 2022 we re-profiled and relaunched the schemes. We also launched the one-stop-shop scheme. That scheme looks at deeper retrofitting. We significantly enhanced and increased the funding for the warmer homes scheme to try to drive on with that. The first checkpoint in the target is the 2025 sectoral emissions ceiling. In the private sector, the SEAI has to achieve 103,000 retrofits, 83,000 of which must be to a B2 standard or a cost-optimal equivalent by 2025. We also have to install 45,000 heat pumps. We are in the build phase now. Our sense, from listening and looking at the application trajectory across the schemes, is that the message is getting out there. People are starting to pivot to retrofitting and apply for the grants. We are simplifying the journey for them and we are building towards those bigger targets towards the end of the decade.