John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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253. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of local authority units without either gas or oil central heating installed, by county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48499/17]

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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254. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his plans to install central heating in all local authority units; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48500/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 253 and 254 together.

I refer to my reply to Question No. 522 of 14 November 2017. While my Department does not hold this information in respect of local authority houses, central heating systems have been provided in all new local authority dwellings as a matter of course since 1994. In addition, the extensive central heating upgrade programme in social housing over the years 2004 to 2009, saw the installation of central heating and associated energy efficiency measures, in 27,750 such dwellings, at a cost to the exchequer of €140 million.

As you will be aware, my Department is currently supporting an ambitious programme of insulation retrofitting, with some €107 million in funding being provided from 2013 to end-2016. While this programme is being implemented in a number of phases, heating upgrades will be considered in future phases of the Programme.    

In the meanwhile, if a local authority identifies a tenanted dwelling which requires a specific and urgent energy efficiency upgrade, especially in those dwellings which accommodate elderly people and people with disabilities, then a special case should be made to my Department to have these works funded.