Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
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Before I call Senator Cummins, as I have done on all occasions when members of the Cabinet come to the House, I take the opportunity to thank the Minister, Deputy Ryan, for being here. It is good to have a member of Cabinet here taking a Commencement matter. On my own behalf and on that of the House, I thank the Minister for his service to public life and to the State. He announced his retirement this week. You can disagree with the Minister on many things, but he is a thorough professional, a gentleman and a decent human being. He is a person I have grown to admire in my time served in a number of Oireachtais. I thank him for that. We wish him a very happy retirement and thank him.

John Cummins (Fine Gael)
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I join the Cathaoirleach in wishing the Minister well. I wish him the very best when he retires. He is not quite there yet. There is plenty of work that needs to be done between now and the general election.

I offer my genuine thanks to the Minister being here this morning. This is a very important matter. I have been seeking information on it for some months to no avail, to be honest, which is why I have tabled this Commencement matter. I hope there will be a definitive response.

The community energy grant scheme is excellent. It funds community-oriented energy retrofit programmes across the country. It has been a tremendous success. I am aware of many excellent projects in my county of Waterford that have been delivered by way of the scheme. These deliver huge energy savings through a mixture of sustainable energy solutions. That is exactly what we want.

The Minister may correct me if I am wrong but I understand it operates on the basis of the Department issuing the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, with a budget to fund the scheme. Local community organisations and clubs submit applications to SEAI with the assistance of project co-ordinators, usually regional energy agencies. These are assessed and then a letter of offer is issued with a percentage of the funding being provided to the groups. However, over recent months, I am aware of many organisations that have been waiting months for a decision. Those projects have ground to a halt. That is concerning and frustrating. The tracker on the SEAI website has not been updated since 24 January. Many bundles of projects are stuck in the "under evaluation" phase.

Some sports clubs will have sports capital funding which they are waiting to draw down but they cannot proceed with works because the energy component is a significant part of the overall project. The way the scheme is constructed, they cannot claim for works that have been done. They need to get approval first. There are many instances where clubs have the Department of sport breathing down their necks to know why they have not drawn down sports capital funding. It is because decisions are pending in the context of the energy component. Construction inflation is increasing all the time and this is adding to the cost. There are companies that will not stand over tenders because time has ticked away.

I am trying to get to the bottom of what is happening with this scheme. Is it the case that the Department has given the funding to the SEAI? Is the SEAI not releasing the funding to the energy agencies to allow them to give it to local community organisations? What exactly is happening? When will clubs and community organisations that have these much-needed projects ready to go with contractors be able to commence them? The scheme is excellent, but it is not acceptable that there is such a delay in allocating the resources which the Department has rightly provided.

Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail)
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Before the Minister replies, I echo what the Cathaoirleach said earlier. We wish the Minister well. I know he will be staying around as Minister for a while. We have had some friendly disagreements, but I always found him to be a gentleman. I wish him and his family well. I know how dedicated he is to his family.I thank the Cathaoirleach for his very kind words. The community energy grant scheme is part of the Government’s national retrofit programme within which there is a total budget of €437.2 million this year that SEAI allocate for residential and community energy upgrade schemes to allow us to meet our climate targets. The community energy grant, CEG, scheme aims to upgrade the building stock and facilities to high standards of energy efficiency and renewable energy use. This helps to reduce fossil fuel use, energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

The scheme supports cross-sectoral and community-oriented partnership approaches that deliver energy savings to a range of building types including public, commercial and community buildings with a particular focus on using the projects to deliver home retrofits. Through this scheme, communities are improving the energy efficiency of shared community buildings and businesses are becoming more competitive through reduced energy costs. In addition, homes are being upgraded making them more comfortable and helping to alleviate the effects of energy poverty.

Under the CEG scheme, the project co-ordinators, including local energy agencies, make applications to SEAI for funding support. The local energy agencies or the other project co-ordinators, the applicants, do not administer the scheme on behalf of the SEAI. Instead, they make applications for grant support to the scheme which are evaluated and, if successful, they are issued with a grant offer.

Last year, the community energy grant scheme delivered 601 home energy upgrades to at least a B2 BER or better and over 290 non-residential projects. The home energy upgrades included 68 approved housing body homes and 44 energy-poor homes. There were 595 heat pumps installed. The average improvement in building energy ratings for homes was from an average of D2 to a B2 rating or better.

Funding of €45 million in capital has been allocated to the scheme this year. The community energy grant scheme has been open all year and the SEAI has been accepting and processing applications. A number of projects have already been approved with five others under evaluation and awaiting approval. Four of the applications awaiting approval were made in June 2024 with the other project application received in mid-May 2024. These projects will upgrade energy poor, private and approved housing body homes across Ireland, with typically one fifth being energy-poor homes. The non-domestic element of these projects include retail, manufacturing, sports facilities, renewable energy, community buildings and electrical vehicle charging.

The scheme guidelines were updated in recent weeks with a number of important changes introduced, including a new domestic-only strand to increase the delivery of home retrofits through scheme; changes aimed at addressing some of the key barriers to upgrading flat and apartment buildings; the introduction of 18-month contracts for some larger, more complex non-domestic projects; and facilitation of innovative delivery approaches including those aimed at aggregated retrofit delivery and increased heat pump deployment. The changes were designed to address particular challenges in upgrading our built environment and I look forward to seeing the projects supported in the year to come.

John Cummins (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for the response but there is some disconnect between what he has said in relation to the 2024 scheme and the reality on the ground. The response states that four applications that were made in June and mid-May were awaiting approval but the project tracker on the SEAI website refers to a whole bundle of applications that were made on 24 January that are awaiting a decision. That is the thrust of the question I am asking here this morning because I am aware of a sporting facility in my own city of Waterford that cannot proceed with its project because it is awaiting a decision on an energy project that it has submitted. It has not received a decision, it is now the middle of June and it cannot proceed with their sports capital drawdown in conjunction with that.

There is a disconnect between what the Minister has acutally said on the record of the House and the reality on the ground. Something is amiss somewhere and I have been trying to get to the bottom of this for the last couple of months and have not been able to. I am not questioning the Minister or the response that he has given as this is what he has been given by the officials but there is a disconnect between the reality of how the situation is. There are many community groups that are awaiting that decision and I would ask the Minister to please investigate the matter. It is different from what has been given here.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I will go back and try to check if the Senator can give me further specific details on the particular application for that sports club. My assessment from the material I am getting is that the community energy grant scheme is delivering. Two large projects have already been completed ahead of when they were expected. By mid-June, we have completed 243 homes and 68 non-domestic projects which are associated with the closing out of contracts from last year and this year. The demand for the scheme remains strong. Four contracts have been agreed to date with further projects awaiting the approval process. One of those is as the Senator says the sports club in Waterford. I presume it has not been approved yet. If the Senator can give me the specific details I will try to come back to him on that but by and large the scheme is working.

The expenditure has dramaticially increased for a lot of our retrofitting programme. The number of contractors and homes upgraded is on track. In other areas of our climate performance we need to do more and do it faster but the retrofitting sector is absolutely flying. I will check the specific details if the Senator can send them to me.