Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 601: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the position, in tabular form, on the greener homes scheme grant; and the amount of money that has been granted under this scheme per month from April 2006 to date in 2008 to householders seeking to make their homes more energy efficient. [25497/08]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The following table shows the total amount of grant paid and the number of payments to householders per month since the launch in 2006 of the Greener Homes Scheme to end May 2008.

Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 602: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the position regarding the pilot grant scheme for people who wish to insulate their homes including those who can apply for this grant; the number of grants that have been made to date; the amount of money that has been set aside for this scheme; and the amount that was spent to date. [25498/08]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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I launched the Pilot Home Energy Saving Scheme in April with a budget of €5 million for 2008. The Scheme is designed to incentivise homeowners to improve the energy efficiency of their homes, thus reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. The Scheme is primarily aimed at older housing stock which is likely to be most in need of energy efficiency retrofitting. The Pilot Scheme is being administered by Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI), together with two local energy agencies.

The Scheme is operating on a pilot basis this year in three geographical areas — North Tipperary, Dundalk and an area encompassing Counties Clare and Limerick (excluding Limerick City). Over one thousand applications were received by the closing date of 30 May. Applications for the fourth module of the Scheme are being invited shortly and the fourth module is not geographically limited and will focus primarily on incentivising a clustered approach including groups of houses and estates, with the objective of achieving economies of scale. This module is expected to add up to a further thousand homes to the Scheme.

Each applicant household is being assigned a Building Energy Rating (BER) assessor to provide a BER rating on the house and advise on the works that need to be carried out to improve its energy efficiency. Assessments will commence in the coming weeks. Some 60 registered BER assessors have been appointed to work on the Scheme and have been provided with special training by SEI. Each householder is required to pay a €100 contribution towards the cost of the BER assessment, with the scheme subsidising the majority of the cost. A BER assessor's advice will relate to the need for improved attic and wall insulation, more energy efficient glazing, better heating controls and a range of other energy efficiency improvement works.

Grants of up to 30% of the cost of works recommended by the BER assessor are available under the Scheme, subject to an overall payment threshold of €2,500 for individual applicant homes and lower levels for clustered applications. The cost of works for clustered applications is expected to be lower because of the economies of scale.

There are no restrictions on eligibility for the Pilot Scheme, other than the geographical boundaries of the three pilot areas. If more applications under the four modules are received than can be accommodated, a form of selection process will be implemented.

Preliminary estimates from SEI show that a household participating in the pilot scheme could save up to €500 in energy bills every year as a result of the energy efficiency investments undertaken. The pilot scheme is expected to result in reduced CO2 emissions of 6,000 tonnes per year, while the full €100 million scheme envisaged in the Programme for Government could be expected to yield CO2 savings of 175,000 tonnes per year.

A decision in relation to the roll-out of the Scheme nationally from 2009 will be made in light of the results of the Pilot Scheme and overall budgetary considerations.