Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I gave quite a detailed answer to Deputy Cleere earlier, particularly on the warmer homes scheme because it focuses on lower income and more complex homes with BER E, F and G ratings. I want to see a reduction in the waiting period. The Deputy mentioned a constituent in Dingle who waited 18 months for a decision. The average processing time has reduced from 24 to 18 months but I want to see it reduced further but it cannot be turned over overnight. However, there have been 162,000 home energy upgrades - more than 55,000 B2 upgrades, 22,000 fully-funded upgrades under the warmer homes scheme and 10,500 local authority homes as well. The vast majority have been paid for through the carbon tax, ring-fenced funding to enable us to retrofit homes. I want to improve and expand it. We will continue to look at that. Some €280 million has been allocated to the warmer homes scheme. That is an elevenfold increase on what it was in only 2020. It can always be improved and we need to do that.

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