Dáil debates

Thursday, 17 February 2022

National Retrofitting Scheme: Statements

 

4:20 pm

Photo of Ossian SmythOssian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the statements made today by Members of the House. The changes announced by Government last week represent the most significant reform of the SEAI schemes since their establishment. However, these supports are just part of our overall national retrofit plan and I would like to take this opportunity to highlight some other aspects. As mentioned by the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, the national retrofit plan was published in November 2021 and it sets out the Government strategy for meeting our 2030 retrofit targets. The plan is designed to address barriers to retrofit across four key pillars: driving demand and activity; financing and funding; supply chain skills; and standards and governance. Successful implementation of the plan depends on ensuring that effective policy action is taken and balanced progress is made under each pillar simultaneously. For instance, there is little point in driving demand when the supply chain is not sufficiently developed to satisfy this demand. For that reason, developing the retrofit supply chain and workforce will be a key priority this year. Building up capacity in the sector from the current levels to a point where it can deliver approximately 75,000 home energy upgrades per year will require the right initiatives to stimulate and support the market to invest and attract new entrants.

The national retrofit plan has already provided certainty to the sector in terms of the commitment by Government to support residential and community retrofit. The budget of €8 billion and clarity on the annual allocations to the end of the decade will provide confidence to the sector to grow due to the resulting large and stable pipeline of work that it will support. The commencement of new SEAI grant schemes and the expansion of the local authority retrofit programme will also allow year-round working. This, in itself, will greatly increase the capacity of the sector to deliver increased numbers of retrofits because it will transform a six-month industry into a year-round industry. I expect that the range of measures in the national retrofit plan will encourage new entrants to the retrofit market, as well as incentivising existing market players to grow. However, new and expanding businesses in the retrofit sector can face challenges as they expand. For that reason, the SEAI will work with these businesses to encourage them to avail of the range of supports available though the local enterprise offices, LEOs, including financial supports, training programmes and mentoring.

As the retrofit industry transforms to accommodate much higher levels of output, the quality must be maintained at a high level to sustain customer confidence and demand. Standards and the existing quality management model will need to evolve to cope with a much greater scale of activity. For that reason, new standards and guidance documents will be introduced. This includes the publication of new guidance for the retrofitting of traditional buildings, as well as a certification scheme for energy efficiency retrofit of dwellings. The network of one-stop shops will also play a central role in maintaining and enhancing the quality of retrofits delivered.

I will now turn to the issue of retrofit careers. Retrofitting homes is a highly labour-intensive sector. As such, it has the potential to produce high-quality sustainable jobs in local communities throughout the country. The report of the expert group on future skills needs, which was published at the end of last year, indicates that we need to increase the number of full-time equivalent workers in the sector from 4,000 to 17,000 by the middle of the decade. This points to the substantial number of career opportunities in the green economy and the important role that retrofit will play in our economic growth and development. Crucially, my colleague, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, has provided €22 million for the green skills action programme this year, and €17 million of this budget provision relates to the retrofit and the nZEB skills expansion. That will provide for an additional 2,660 places, bringing the total number of places to 4,550 by the end of 2022. The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science is also supporting two retrofit centres of excellence, with three more to be in place later this year. This will further enhance upskilling and reskilling capacity. The Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021 to 2025 provides a roadmap to a single apprenticeship system that will fully embed apprenticeship as a mainstream route to skills development for employers and prospective apprentices. A number of apprenticeships have also developed and transitioned elements of their programmes to include provisions for green skills. The target of doubling annual apprentice registrations to 10,000 new registrations by 2025 provides a clear opportunity to support the development of the skill sets necessary around the retrofit industry. Figures show that the apprenticeship population has increased to 24,212, with a record 8,607 new registrations in 2021. In November 2021, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science announced enhancements to the CAO website to include further education and apprenticeship options for school leavers. There will also be information and guidance on national apprenticeships on cao.ie, with information on how to become an apprentice, what you will learn while you learn, and the qualifications that you will achieve. These enhancements to the CAO website ensure that school leavers will have improved visibility of all their options and pathways, including further education and training and apprenticeships provided by the 16 education and training boards, ETBs.

I will now turn to the private rental sector. In line with the design principles of fairness and universality, there is a need to ensure that all housing types and consumer cohorts can participate. Specific measures to stimulate retrofit activity among households vulnerable to energy poverty, approved housing bodies and in the private rented sector were included in the package of measures announced by Government last week. The residential rental sector poses a particular challenge. In this sector, the incentives to invest in energy upgrades are misaligned between landlords and tenants. This impacts negatively on the energy performance of the sector. It is a complex problem that is seen in many countries, and is referred to as the split incentive. In order to address the issue, non-corporate landlords are eligible for the new grant supports under the national home energy upgrade scheme, the better energy homes scheme and the community energy grant scheme. It is intended that non-corporate landlords will be able to avail of the planned low-cost loan scheme for retrofit when it is announced later this year.

A further key step associated with addressing this issue will be the introduction of a minimum building energy rating requirement for rental properties. The Housing for All strategy, which is being led by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, includes a commitment to introduce this requirement from 2025. Collectively, these measures will mean the national housing stock is upgraded and tenants get lower energy bills and a more comfortable place to live.

My Department will be working with the SEAI to separately consider the best approach to dealing with apartment buildings that are multi-unit buildings with common areas, rather than individual units. This will be investigated in 2022 to consider approaches to support whole-building solutions. I note that grants are now available to apartment dwellers on the website of the SEAI. That is another innovation in the recent announcement.

Approximately 36,500 local authority homes will be retrofitted in the next decade under the local authority retrofit programme. This programme of work will not only benefit local authorities in assisting them to upgrade and maintain their housing stock, it will also directly benefit householders with an enhanced level of comfort and lower fuel costs. In 2022, the energy efficiency retrofitting programme will see approximately 2,400 local authority homes nationally being upgraded to a B2 or equivalent standard, with a significant increase in funding to support local authorities to €85 million.

Some Deputies claimed the new plan fails to address the backlog in the Better Energy, Warmer Homes scheme. However, the number of homes being addressed under the scheme is doubling. It was 177 per month but is moving to 400 per month. This will reduce the number in the backlog. It is to be prioritised towards those with homes in categories E, F or G, but those who are already waiting will not be taken off the waiting list. The list will be shorter as a result of these actions and people will get their upgrades sooner.

It was stated by some Deputies that this is a massive transfer of wealth to richer homes and that it is unfair. In fact, 58% of the €352 million that has been allocated in the budget for this year is to go towards people who are either local authority tenants or living on welfare payments.

A Deputy claimed that only ten deep retrofits were carried out in 2021. However, the numbers I presented to the Select Committee on Environment, Climate and Communications last week are that 4,600 B2 deep retrofits were completed last year. This year, we expect to complete 8,600 deep retrofits to B2.

Deputy McHugh asked about the mica scheme. The retrofit scheme will be available to those with mica homes. The two schemes will work together. That is confirmed and the Deputy can contact my office for further information in that regard.

As outlined, the Government has set ambitious targets for Ireland for the end of this decade. These include almost halving greenhouse gas emissions from the residential sector by 2030, upgrading almost one third of the building stock to a building energy rating of B2 or a cost-optimal or carbon equivalent and installing 400,000 heat pumps in existing homes to replace older and less efficient heating systems. This represents one of the most ambitious retrofit programmes worldwide and, for that reason, the implementation of the national retrofit plan and the new measures announced by the Government last week will be grounded in robust governance, oversight and evaluation. A cross-departmental steering group will be established in the coming weeks and chaired by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. This group will oversee and monitor progress against our national targets and develop new initiatives as required. I thank Members for their contributions.

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