Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Before we conclude, while we are on the subject of State support for general retrofits, the Minister of State mentioned VAT. It is not uniform across retrofitting products. We as a State need to revisit that decision. There are currently two different rates for construction-related products, such as heat pumps, for retrofitting. People are not sure what rate they should pay, in particular individuals who are working through a one-stop shop. For instance, I believe heat pumps attract a different VAT rate, that is, 23%, versus other solar products which have a zero rate. We want to add an extra little layer of incentive for people.

I am probably about to engage in a deep retrofit. Such a change is something that might persuade people to make that leap when they might not necessarily have installed a heat pump and instead decided to stick with a gas boiler. The Minister knows as well as I do that it has ten or 15 years of life before someone is told to replace it because it is coming to the end of its life, and then they decide to get a heat pump. Why not front-load that and try to get people to install them at the start? As I said, that is not part of this Estimate, but it is an important conversation. I put my climate action hat on because, as the Minister of State knows, I am on both committees.