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

It is important that I put everything on the record as well having a chat.

I thank Senator Davitt very much for raising this issue and giving me a timely opportunity to give an update on the Government's support for home retrofit. The programme for Government and climate action plan set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the residential sector from 7 megatons of carbon dioxide in 2018 to between 3.5 megatons and 4.5 megatons in 2030. A comprehensive retrofit programme will be a key measure to support the achievement of this target.

We will need to retrofit the equivalent of 500,000 homes to a building energy rating of B2 and undertake the installation of 400,000 heat pumps in existing homes to replace older, less efficient heating systems by the end of 2030. This represents approximately 30% of the housing stock and is among the most ambitious retrofitting programmes in the world.

The national retrofit plan was published last November as part of the climate action plan 2021 and sets out how the Government will deliver these targets. The plan is designed to address barriers to retrofit across four key pillars.First is driving demand and activity, second is financing and funding, third is supply chain skills and standards and fourth is governance.

Recognising that the achievement of our climate action plan targets will require a step change in the pace and scale of delivery of Ireland’s residential retrofit programme, the Government has approved a package of supports to make it easier and more affordable for homeowners to undertake home energy upgrades to create warmer, healthier and more comfortable homes, with lower energy bills. The key measures include: first, a new national home energy upgrade scheme, providing increased grant levels of up to 50% of the cost of a typical deep retrofit to a B2 building energy rating, BER, standard. That is up from 30% to 35% of grants that were available. There are a significantly increased number of free energy upgrades for those who are at risk of energy poverty. That is up to €400 per month, from an average of €177 per month in 2021. There is a special enhanced grant rate, which is equivalent to 80% of the typical cost for attic and cavity wall insulation for all households. That is to urgently reduce energy use as part of the Government's response to current exceptionally high energy prices.

The new initiatives will be funded by the unprecedented national development plan financial allocation for residential retrofit. That is €8 billion available up to 2030. More than 60% of this funding, €5 billion, will be sourced from carbon tax revenue. A total of €267 million has been allocated for the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland's residential and community schemes and the solar photovoltaic scheme in 2022. This is the highest ever allocation for the schemes. The investment this year would support almost 27,000 home energy upgrades, including over 8,600 homes, to a building energy rating of B2. This is a near doubling of the number of homes delivered to B2 in 2021. In addition, €85 million funding has been provided by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, for the local authority energy efficiency retrofit programme. This means that of the total Government retrofit budget of €352 million, 58%, or €203 million, will be spent on dedicated energy poverty schemes and local authority retrofits.

Regarding wood pellet burners, a marginal abatement cost curve was developed as part of the climate action plan. That was to provide a solid, analytical foundation on the most cost-effective pathway to reduce emissions in line with Ireland’s decarbonisation targets. In using Ireland’s 2018 greenhouse gas emissions projections to 2035, associated projections of economic activity and assessments across 300 business cases for technology, the analysis identifies the technologies, including fuel switches and the associated levels of adoption that are required to meet our 2030 targets in the most economical way. Our national target of 400,000 heat pumps was derived from this analysis, and Government funding and incentives are aligned with this policy objective, as opposed to other heating systems, such as wood pellet burners, which do not have national targets.