Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The national retrofit plan sets out the Government's approach to achieving the climate action plan targets of upgrading the equivalent of 500,000 homes to a building energy rating, BER, of B2, the cost-optimal level, and installing 400,000 heat pumps to replace older, less efficient heating systems by 2030. To promote and incentivise the achievement of these targets, last year the Government approved a package of significantly enhanced supports to make it easier and more affordable for homeowners to undertake home energy upgrades.

Following the introduction of the new measures in February last year, demand across the SEAI grant-supported schemes was exceptionally high. This has continued this year, with data from SEAI in quarter 1 of 2023 showing the following: across all schemes, 9,946 home energy upgrades have been completed; of these upgrades, 3,304 homes have been upgraded to a post-works BER of B2 or better; under the warmer homes scheme, 946 fully funded home energy upgrades have been completed; and under the national home energy upgrade scheme, 255 home energy upgrades were completed.

A more detailed quarterly report on the first quarter of this year will be published shortly by SEAI. A detailed overview of the SEAI 2022 performance against annual targets on the residential and community energy efficiency schemes can be found in its recently published quarterly report on the SEAI website. Data on pre and post-works building energy ratings for homes completed under the one-stop shop and warmer homes schemes in quarter 1 of 2023 will be provided separately to the Deputy.

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