John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)
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Question 299: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the number of homes in Kerry who have benefitted under the warmer homes scheme to date in 2010 and if he plans to extend the scheme in 2011 [46224/10]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The Warmer Homes Scheme (WHS), which is administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) on behalf of my Department, provides energy efficiency improvements to homes in, or at risk of, fuel poverty and is primarily delivered by 28 community based organisations (CBOs). The CBOs work in partnership with their local network of poverty and community support organisations including public health nurses, MABS and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul to identify and address vulnerable homes. Through this devolved model, each CBO is responsible for managing the applications in their own operational areas. Private contractors are also engaged to supplement CBO coverage and capacity in order to address the increasing demand for the scheme.

Through these mechanisms the WHS was delivered to 16,240 homes in 2009 including 808 homes in County Kerry. To date in 2010 the WHS has been delivered to 22,949 homes including 750 homes in County Kerry.

There is no pre-set amount of funding allocated to individual counties under the WHS, as it is a national scheme with a funding envelope which varies on a county by county basis annually. Activity levels in 2011 will be subject to Budget Day decisions.

A dedicated WHS hot line - 1800 250 204 – has been in operation for some time and all queries, from scheme applicants and public representatives, on delivery dates for individual households and/or funding agreements are dealt with immediately. In addition, the WHS programme manager, Mr. Michael Martin of SEAI is available to deal with queries on 042 939 1548.