Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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415. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the amount that his Department has spent on the better energy warmer homes scheme, the better energy communities scheme, the better energy homes scheme and the warmth and wellbeing scheme in each of the years since 2010, in tabular form. [48106/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The Better Energy Programme is funded by my Department and operated by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).  The programme consists of three main schemes: Homes, Warmer Homes and Communities.

Better Energy Homes provides a financial incentive to private homeowners who wish to improve the energy performance of their homes.  Better Energy Warmer Homes delivers a range of energy efficiency measures free of charge to low income households who meet the defined eligibility criteria and who are vulnerable to energy poverty.  Better Energy Communities supports energy efficiency upgrades to mixed projects of homes, community facilities and businesses in a local community.

These schemes are supplemented by the Warmth and Wellbeing scheme which was launched as a pilot initiative under the Government’s Strategy to Combat Energy Poverty and the Healthy Ireland Framework. The aim of the scheme, a joint policy initiative between my Department and the Department of Health, which began in 2016, is to demonstrate the positive effects that making homes warmer and more energy efficient can have on the health and wellbeing of people in energy poverty who are living with a chronic respiratory condition. An independent research project is underway alongside the scheme's delivery and will assess the impact the scheme is having.

The table illustrates the capital funding paid out in grants on these programmes over 2010-2017. Please note that the figures recorded for 2017 reflect spend incurred to end-October 2017. By the end of the year, I expect the final outturn for energy efficiency programmes to be reach the highest level it has been since 2011.