Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

The Government is committed to protecting vulnerable households from the impact of energy costs through a combination of institutional supports, programmes to improve the energy efficiency of the housing stock and energy efficiency awareness initiatives.

I am working closely with the Minister for Social and Family Affairs and the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to ensure a fully cohesive approach across Government to energy affordability. The interdepartmental-agency group led by my Department and the Department of Social and Family Affairs is drawing up an affordable energy strategy in line with the renewed programme for Government. The strategy will set out existing and future plans to tackle energy affordability. It is the intention to publish the strategy for public consultation before the end of the year.

The warmer homes scheme is administered by Sustainable Energy Ireland. The scheme is the primary mechanism for alleviating the key underlying cause of fuel poverty, namely, thermal inefficiency of houses. Some €20 million has been provided for the scheme in 2009, which includes €5 million provided by the ESB and Bord Gáis Éireann.

This level of funding is enabling structural improvements in at least 15,000 vulnerable homes by the end of 2009. This includes 2,000 homes benefiting from the ESB's home insulation scheme which operates alongside the warmer home scheme. The very significant upscaling of the scheme this year underlines the Government's commitment to addressing energy affordability. Some 5,343 homes were retrofitted under the warmer homes scheme in 2008. So far this year, 14,248 homes have benefited under the scheme.

The most recent research figures available on the numbers at risk of fuel poverty are set out in the national energy efficiency action plan. It reflects the analysis published in November 2008 by the Economic and Social Research Institute on fuel poverty in Ireland. The ESRI uses various methods for calculating the extent of fuel poverty. These include the expenditure method or share of income spent on fuels and the subjective assessment by occupants.

The ESRI estimates that using the expenditure method, 300,000 or 19.4% of Irish households may have experienced fuel poverty in 2008 at a time of particularly Irish energy prices. Using the subjective method, 68,000 or 4.6% of households reported that they could not afford to heat their homes adequately in 2006. Enhancing the energy efficiency of homes through structural improvements is pivotal to the Government's strategy to address energy affordability.

The fuel poverty action research project was established by Combat Poverty and Sustainable Energy Ireland. The project was an ex post assessment of the energy, environmental, thermal comfort and health benefits of the warmer homes scheme.

The report was initially scheduled to be completed in 2008 but its completion was delayed due to the loss of key data. A draft report was circulated in August to members of the research community for comment. Publication of the final report, which has recovered the relevant data, is expected before next month.

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