Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Deputy Bruton's question relates to some of the material I have been reading today. His question is well timed as these issues are on my mind. At the Cabinet meeting today, we discussed a memorandum on the International Energy Agency, IEA, country review, which I presume will be published later today. The review broadly points out the areas where we are seeing progress and in which Ireland is giving a good example in Europe. One of the IEA's recommendations is that we do more to target households in poverty and experiencing poor fuel conditions. Such households might be using coal or wood products, which may be causing an air quality issue within the home. Bringing the energy rating of a house up from G, E or D gives a much better carbon return than what we get from bringing a C rating up to a B2. We will look at that.

As Deputy Farrell said, a key issue is capacity within the workforce. The initiative announced at the Cabinet today by the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, is specifically to do with improving skills in regard to the installation of heat pumps. That is probably the one area where we need to see a real increase. The other parts of the retrofitting programme are working really well. To meet our heat pump targets, we really need to ramp up the number of pump installations, particularly to replace oil- and gas-fired boilers. The Minister's announcement today relates to a very specific and targeted training programme for plumbers regarding heat pump installation.

From talking to the SEAI and the Department, I am aware that the wider market is showing a significant increase in contractor availability. There is not quite the same constraint there was two to three years ago, which was causing some of the price increases. That constraint is starting to wane. My sense from talking to people in the industry is that they have the capability and capacity now to do more, which they did not have two years ago. One of the areas we should and will look at is further increasing the capacity of the warmer homes scheme. To answer Deputy Bruton's point, some 400,000 families are in receipt of fuel allowance. We have only started to scratch the surface of the potential market for the scheme. This is a three-decade project. By the end of the 2040s, we expect every Irish home to be fit for purpose in terms of low-carbon energy and heating systems. That would have an incredible impact in terms of alleviating food poverty and other health benefits. It is a multi-decade effort. It goes right back to the climate plan Deputy Bruton, as Minister, introduced in 2018, when we started this perspective of making progress decade by decade.

The warmer homes scheme takes slightly more than half the revenue we get from the carbon tax per year, which is not insignificant. Last year, that figure was €327 million. This year, it will be €444 million. There is a huge expansion of the scheme. The allocation goes up automatically every year, without being caught up in the budget cycle. Consequently, we know it will be up to €500 million next year and will increase again the following year. That certainty gives the industry a real confidence to train people.

The ESRI is doing ongoing research for us on energy poverty. We will look at how we can further improve the warmer homes scheme, not just in terms of reducing the two-year timeframe or gap but also thinking about how we can target the households most in need. That will include, as Deputy Farrell mentioned, targeting those with particular health issues. The warmth and well-being scheme is not the only relevant measure. In the middle of the energy crisis, the Government introduced measures to help householders who were very high users of electricity, including those using medical equipment in the home. We put in solar panels to help them.

We should and will continue to monitor and target the most vulnerable sectors. That is one of the recommendations of the IEA country review which will also be published today.