Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 207: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will reverse the cuts to the external insulation grant for housing in view of the unemployment that it is creating and due to the fact that it will retard progress towards energy efficiency. [40415/11]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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I have secured a budget allocation of €76 million for the Better Energy programme in 2012. The programme will continue to support at least 4,500 jobs and generate anticipated energy savings of 340GWh.

Support for external wall insulation was originally set at a level designed to stimulate demand and assist in the market development of this sector. In recent months, it is clear from the pattern of grant applications for Better Energy: Homes that this measure is in increasingly high demand. The changes to the external wall insulation grant reflect increased price competitiveness in the market and the relative cost of undertaking this work on the various house types. I do not propose to request Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland to make any further changes to the grant for external insulation.

Changes to the grant support levels are set out in the table.