Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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92. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the number of retrofits completed under the SEAI one-stop shop and warmer homes schemes in quarter 1 2023, and for the pre-BER, post-BER of completed projects; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19963/23]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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I ask the Minister the number of retrofits completed under the SEAI one-stop shop and warmer homes schemes in quarter 1 of 2023, and for the pre-BER, post-BER of completed projects; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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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.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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What we are increasingly getting is a picture of a fundamental flaw in the Government’s approach to the national retrofitting plan. The Minister will have heard me previously welcome the funding and welcome the commitment, but what we see here is a two-track approach, and we see vulnerable people who are poor and live in cold homes being left behind. It is welcome that we are starting to collect the data in a way that we have not done before. However, for example, when I asked this question in regard to 2022, just 9% of the headline figure of 27,000 retrofits were actually to a B2 standard. The vast majority, under the warmer homes scheme, the free scheme for people who are poorer and in colder homes, are not getting close to the B2 standard - it is only a fraction. At the same time, those people who are starting from a better position in terms of the warmth of their home, but also their access to funding, are getting to that B2 standard.

We have a two-tier approach here. We need to shift the focus to lifting people out of energy poverty and into higher BER standards. We need new metrics.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I beg to differ with Deputy O'Rourke. I do not have the exact statistics in front of me.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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I do.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I only saw them briefly yesterday but across each of the sectors in which the SEAI is working, we are seeing an incredible increase in demand for improvements to buildings, the introduction of solar energy and across every category. There has been an incredible level of growth, of up to 250%, in a whole variety of different cases. The absolute priority is to make sure that we deliver for those households most at risk. The warmer homes scheme, which represents a large percentage of our budget, targets those on the lowest incomes. The reality of what is happening is that we are ahead of our targets. Last year we were on target but in the first quarter of this year, there has been dramatic growth with no indication that is going to be reversed. If anything, with the provision of the additional apprenticeships, the significant job creation in this area and the scaling up of our capability, we are going to take off from here. There has been very significant growth compared with last year, which is very welcome.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister said he disagrees with me and gave his response but that response does not deal with any of the issues I raised. There is demand there, of course, and I welcome that but the question is from whom is the demand and what works are being done. I have the figures in front of me. Of all of the works done under the warmer homes scheme, only 3% of households were lifted to a B2 standard. That tells me that the warmer homes scheme is doing something very entirely different to what the one-stop shop scheme is doing for people who have access to means and supports. I have made a statement of fact based on the evidence that I have in front of me, not looking at demand or at the amount of work that is being done. I am referring to the pre-work and post-work BER data and the amount of people who are being lifted out of, or not being lifted out of, energy poverty. That is just a statement of fact, borne out by the evidence and I implore the Minister to recognise that and to recalibrate, tweak or change the approach from the Government.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Does the Minister agree that Deputy O'Rourke is distorting the picture somewhat? The reality is that the one-stop shop scheme requires applicants to go to B2. People will not get those additional supports unless they go to B2. Would the Minister also agree that even if the warmer homes scheme does not deliver B2 ratings, very substantial reductions of between 60% and 70% in the fuel costs of households can be achieved for those most vulnerable families by some of the interventions? In the long term, the ideal is B2 but that is very expensive. I would rather see a lot of families helped to significantly reduce their fuel costs than striving for perfection for a very small group of people.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister said that the onus here is not to leave people behind but that is what is happening. I will give the Minister another couple of facts and figures. There are 176,000 social housing units in the State. Approximately 36,000 of them are at a B2 standard or higher. Another 36,000 are to be done by 2030. This means that roughly 100,000 social housing units are being left behind. Social housing is for people who are on lower incomes, including older people and pensioners. Those 100,000 households are going to paying the carbon tax but will not be getting anything in return. We talk about fairness and equality but those who need their homes to be retrofitted the most, those who need their homes to be warmer and their energy costs to be reduced are losing out. As Deputy O'Rourke has said, the people who need support the most are not getting it.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The people who need it the most are getting it. That social housing, which Deputy O'Rourke did not mention in his statistics, is absolutely a key part of what we need to do as well. Those eligible for the warmer homes scheme get a 100% grant and in the first quarter of this year, 1,000 homes were significantly improved. That is not a small or insignificant development. The criticism here a year ago was that there was a backlog under the warmer homes scheme and that we were not closing out that backlog. The story being told now is of us actually delivering on our commitment to address that backlog, to go into the homes of those looking for improvements. It is real now and it is happening at scale. We have the ability to further ramp that up and to show that we can actually deliver. We now have the supply chain and the contractors in place. That was part of the problem a year ago. We did not know if we would be able to scale up, if we would have the industry here to deliver what is needed. What we are seeing now is that it is starting to happen at scale and at speed.

I agree that we need to get every home retrofitted and that we need to prioritise social housing and low-income households. Deputy O'Rourke also ignored another measure, the 80% grant for cavity and attic insulation. The numbers availing of that have taken off dramatically. While that will not get homes to a B2 rating, which is the target, I would prefer to have that work done with an 80% grant, as well as the 100% grant under the warmer homes scheme for those who cannot afford it. The economics of that works because those houses with better attic and wall insulation have lower fuel bills, thanks to us delivering on our commitments.

Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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We will move on. The next question is No. 100 in the name of Deputy Bruton.