Mr. Noel Halvey:

We work off the guidance of the SEAI. As a Department, we do not support or fund a heat pump-only measure. A building has to have the required heat loss indicator, HLI, to have a heat pump installed. I deal with these grants regularly, and I have not seen first hand a heat pump alone being claimed for by a local authority. If there are such examples, though, we can take them away with us and examine them, but the programme takes a fabric approach to the home – external wall and attic insulation, windows and doors if necessary and then the heat pump, providing that the HLI meets the requirement for a heat pump to be installed.