Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources further to Parliamentary Question No. 96 of 20 June 2012, the grounds in which those applicants that appealed the insulation grant refusal were successful [53279/12]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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The Better Energy Programme is administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). The Better Energy Homes scheme provides financial assistance to householders who wish to improve the energy performance of their homes. Fixed grants are provided towards the cost of a range of measures including attic insulation, wall insulation, heating systems upgrades, solar thermal panels and accompanying Build Energy Ratings (BER) certificates.

In response to the Parliamentary Question referred to by the Deputy in June of this year, I indicated that the number of applications refused because the grant claim was not received within the six-month grant eligibility period was 1,051, or less than 1% of the total applications to the scheme at that time. Of those, approximately two-thirds of the applicants subsequently appealed, with half of them being successful.

All appeals are considered on a case by case basis, and are generally successful where the works are completed prior to grant expiry and the applicant can point to genuinely extenuating circumstances which would have precluded their meeting the scheme condition, such as unusual postal delays, illness or bereavement.