Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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468. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the number of households cutting turf on special areas of conservation, SACs, that have availed of a retrofit of their houses to be more energy efficient and to use renewable fuel; and the amount the agreed retrofits will cost. [46696/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Government grants for improving the energy efficiency of homes are administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) on behalf of my Department.

The grants provide funding to people who want to upgrade the energy efficiency of their home and switch to renewable heating systems. Funding is provided for a range of energy saving measures, and for installing heat pumps. Meanwhile, people in receipt of certain payments from the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection can avail of free upgrades to their properties, helping them to heat their homes to an adequate level.

Additionally, a 50% grant is available for a deep energy retrofit. This entails a significant upgrade of a building towards nearly zero energy requirements where it is practically feasible and achievable, including replacing their fossil fuel heating with a renewable system. To receive this grant an A3 Building Energy Rating post retrofit must be met.

Over the past two years my Department has, together with the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, worked to further highlight the benefits of energy efficiency and fuel switching to homeowners who are primarily using turf and other fossil fuels for their heating needs. Extensive community engagement was undertaken, with the assistance of Irish Rural Link, to promote the grants in areas that have high prevalence of properties reliant on those fuels.

Whether an applicant to an SEAI scheme is cutting turf on an SAC is not a piece of data that is collected as part of their application and it is not possible therefore to state how many households in SACs have historically availed of the grant assistance. However, if there are particular counties for which the Deputy would wish to have data on grant payments, this information can be made available.

The average Government investment per home in 2018 to date is as follows:

- Better Energy Homes (approx. 30% grant towards specific measures): €1,200

- Better Energy Warmer Homes (100% Exchequer funded, measures based on building survey): €6,000

- Deep Retrofit Pilot (50% grant for achieving BER A3 post retrofit): €25,000 - €30,000.