Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 5: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will introduce a grant support scheme for the upgrading of windows in homes in line with the objectives of the greener homes scheme and the home energy saving scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24371/09]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The home energy saving, HES, scheme, which opened for applications on 25 March, provides grant assistance for a range of energy efficiency applications. These include roof insulation, as well as specific internal and external wall insulation, and boilers and heating controls. Grant assistance is also provided for the assessment of energy upgrade requirements, through a building energy rating, BER, rating before and after the remedial works. Applications were selected for inclusion in the scheme on the basis of expert advice from Sustainable Energy Ireland, SEI, and in light of the pilot phase of the scheme last year. SEI recommended those applications to my Department which it considered optimum in terms of delivering significant energy savings to home owners at least cost and as representing best use of budgetary resources.

Replacement windows are not currently eligible for grant assistance under the scheme. My Department and SEI are keeping the scheme under constant review and will continue to give consideration to the scope for adding other measures, subject to budgetary and technical considerations. Similar to the greener homes scheme, it is anticipated that the HES scheme will evolve and adapt as it rolls out and as the market for these applications matures. This may give rise to changes to the applications eligible under the scheme over time.

To date, there has been very strong interest in taking up grant offers for the existing six measures. Since the scheme opened less than three months ago, grants worth €16 million have been offered to 12,000 home owners nationwide. There are critical benefits accruing for the construction industry from the scheme in terms of economic activity, retraining and job retention. To date, more than 2,000 contractors have registered with SEI to install approved applications under the scheme, with a similar number of BER assessors also being deployed.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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It is important to recognise that the home energy saving scheme is operating well. However, as I have discussed with the Minister on previous occasions, there are concerns about SEI-registered companies charging more than they should. We must ensure there is effective competition in terms of pricing so that home owners get the best possible value from the companies that are registered.

The focus of this question is whether the scheme can be extended to include windows. In most cases, up to 40% of heat loss from a room is lost through closed windows. It is not good value for money to insulate walls and ceilings if the room contains single glazed or poorly double glazed windows. If we are serious about upgrading the stock of approximately 2 million houses throughout the State, we must tackle the issue of insulation for windows as well as walls and ceilings. Windows represent a problem in terms of energy efficiency in most housing stock that is more than five years old.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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It makes sense to replace existing windows with energy efficient ones. Many people live in the same house for 20 or 30 years and it is only logical that energy efficient improvements should be as effective as possible. The reason we selected certain insulation technologies and control systems for inclusion in the HES scheme was their very short payback period of typically three, four or five years. Investing in windows takes longer, sometimes taking 20 or 30 years to achieve payback. We wanted to get the most extensive return possible from the budget we have.

I am keeping the scheme under review to see how it works out. As I said, it has advantages in terms of employment generation as well as energy efficiency by providing jobs in the construction industry. I have asked SEI to report back to me after the first three months to see how the scheme is progressing, how we are using our budget and whether adjustments are required. I will await its advice before making any changes. The scheme is working as it was intended, although I would like to see applications coming in faster. I am confident that will happen as energy service companies begin to promote the scheme and find ways of getting large numbers of houses done quickly. I am not ruling out an extension to the scheme as proposed by the Deputy but I do not wish to raise his expectations. We will continue to monitor and review the scheme as we do with all such schemes on an ongoing basis.