Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 5 April 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action
Implementation of the New National Retrofit Plan: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland
Dr. Ciaran Byrne:
To be clear, there are a number of different eligibility criteria for households, including entitlement to social welfare allowance. Once a householder is eligible, they are on the programme. We do not look at that because we do not set the criteria. Living in energy poverty is one of the criteria. Once a householder meets the threshold criteria, they are on our programme. As a result of the Government decision made in February, what we are doing is pivoting down and looking at the worst performing homes, those with BERs of E, F and G. Typically, but not always, they are the people in most need. There are heritage homes and things like that. We are moving towards that. In terms of the criteria, we just have a list. Once a householder meets the threshold criteria, they are on the programme.