Ms ?ine Stapleton:

I thank the committee for the invitation to discuss the important subject of energy poverty. As the Chair mentioned, I am joined by my colleagues from the Department Seán Armstrong and Noel Halvey.

The management and maintenance of the local authority housing stock is an important matter for the Department and the sector. There are over 146,000 local authority-owned social housing properties in the State, which have an estimated market value of €25 billion. Of equal importance is the requirement that the local authority tenants who occupy those properties and pay their weekly rents be living in homes that provide good comfort levels for those households.

In accordance with section 58 of the Housing Act 1966, local authorities are legally responsible for the management and maintenance of their housing stock including pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, the implementation of a planned maintenance programme and carrying out of responsive repairs. As the committee will be aware, local authorities also have a legal obligation to ensure all their tenanted properties are compliant with the provisions of the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019.

Notwithstanding the legal obligation on local authorities to manage and maintain their own stock, annual funding support is provided from the Department for management and maintenance under a number of funding programmes. In total, since 2013 to the end of 2023, under the voids programme, the energy efficiency programme, including the midlands pilot, and the disabled person grant scheme, some €819 million of Exchequer funding was recouped to the local authorities to support this range of work.

Housing for All outlines the ambition for driving environmental sustainability in our local authority housing stock. The Department continues to support local authorities to move away from maintaining homes through voids and vacancy to a more strategic and informed approach underpinned by stock condition surveys and by the Department's work with the Local Government Management Agency, LGMA, and the local authority sector on implementing an asset-based ICT system. The Minister has secured year-on-year increased funding to local authorities as part of the programme for Government's commitment, led by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, that calls for the retrofitting of 500,000 homes to B2, or cost-optimal equivalent, BER standard by 2030, of which approximately 36,500 are expected to be local authority-owned homes. We are on track to achieve this.

The strong emphasis on fuel poverty and the need to improve thermal performance in the housing stock remains a priority for the Department and led to the implementation of a newly revised programme in 2021. This new holistic energy efficiency retrofit programme provides for an efficiency-first approach, meaning fabric measures and efficient renewable heat pump systems are supported to achieve a BER B2 or cost-optimal level. Fossil fuel boilers are not supported by the energy efficiency retrofit programme. In addition, all new dwellings are constructed to A2 building energy rating and fossil fuel boilers have effectively been phased out.

As a result of the advanced performance requirements of building regulations, it is estimated approximately 40,000 local authority dwellings have been constructed to a typical A or B rating since 2008. Taking account of new housing delivery by local authorities and the energy efficiency retrofit programme, it is expected approximately 70% of our local authority housing stock will have a BER of A or B by 2030. Budget 2024 has again provided an uplift in funding for this retrofit programme, with €90 million of Exchequer funding available to the sector.

We are happy to address any questions members may have.