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

I thank Senator Chambers for addressing a really important issue.

Because of our climate targets, we have to retrofit all those homes below the B2 rating. That amounts to approximately 1.5 million homes. We estimate we will do it, according to the plan, decade by decade. In this first decade, it will involve half a million homes and the installation of 400,000 heat pumps.

Heat pumps are the energy heating system of the future. They are more efficient. They are cleaner. They are more economic. They can allow us use our abundant renewable resources. It makes a lot of sense.

One-stop shops are a key component. We introduced, in February 2022, the whole new retrofitting scheme. There is a variety of different grants and initiatives building on what we were already doing. One-stop shops were one key element in that. It was to pull it together to help householders in what can often be very complex engineering and financing. It was to have an agency that would help deliver that and in the aggregation of that work, help to bring down the cost so that every job is not just a one-off bespoke job and one has agencies which have contractors which can build up scale and experience.

That one-stop scheme is only starting but it is working.Some 900 homes are already upgraded. We are starting to see scale coming. About 16 different one-stop shops are registered and more are coming, so there is competition. If a person is unhappy with the price quoted - from what I have heard recently from others, that one seems very expensive - the best advice would be to get a second quote to see is that consistent.

On a number of points raised, we have to be careful about moving towards one-off grants for such things as doors and windows. We want an integrated approach; that is right. For affordability, some people may go for the one-off grants because they cannot afford the wider package. We will introduce a new loan scheme towards the end of this year that will help to close the gap. Those people who cannot afford the capital or cash to be able to avail of the grants will have a mechanism to do so. We will continue to review and assess the schemes as we go.

The main point I want to make is that this scheme is working. Last year, we had 50,000 applications to the scheme. That was 150% up on the previous year. We upgraded 27,200 homes which is a 79% increase on the previous year. Of those, 8,481 were upgraded to a BER of B2 or better. That is the real, deep retrofit, which is where we want to go. That doubled from the previous year. We had 4,438 homes upgraded under the energy poverty schemes which is up 85% on previous year. We use the carbon tax to fund people, particularly those on lower incomes who could not afford to do some of the retrofitting. That is a key component of this. We have to have a just transition. We have to make sure that those at most risk of fuel poverty are the ones who can benefit most. The benefit of the carbon tax system we have is we know each year that the allocation for that purpose will keep going up. We had a record capital budget of €356 million for this year. That is going to be spent and it will increase further next year.

On the statistics, for context, we set a target for 37,000 home energy upgrades this year. Already in the first half of the year, we have done 21,700. We are ahead of target and the figure is growing. The applications last year show a record 150% increase. They have grown a further 40% this yea. The scheme is working. It is ahead of target, ahead of schedule and making a real difference to people's everyday lives. There has been a 200% increase in deep retrofits so far this year compared with the previous year. The system is working. We will continue to review and revise it. The climate emissions figures will come out tomorrow. I do not expect to see huge progress in some of the other areas but in domestic energy use we are starting to see real reductions. The system is starting to work.