Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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1513. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if his attention has been drawn to the financial position of some applicants of the deep retrofit scheme (details supplied); the way in which the scheme complies with the customer charter of SEAI; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35586/19]

Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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1529. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if funding will be granted for applications that were submitted prior to the closing date in July 2019; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36278/19]

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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1531. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if his attention has been drawn to the application made by persons (details supplied) for a grant under the SEAI grant-aided deep retrofit project that was made in the first half of 2019; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36328/19]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1513, 1529 and 1531 together.

The Deep Retrofit Pilot Scheme was launched in 2017 as a time bound pilot to investigate the challenges and opportunities of deep retrofit in Ireland. The scheme was intended to run for 3 years and closed for applications on 19 July in line with the published Application Guidelines.

The scheme is funded by my Department and operated by the SEAI. However, as Minister, I have no function in relation to individual applications to the scheme. The Pilot provides 50% funding for energy upgrades to an A BER rating with 95% funding provided for low-income households. The total budget for the scheme this year is €10 million – double the amount spent on the scheme last year. The latest data available indicates that €1.2 million has been paid in grants under the scheme in 2019.

All applications that were received before the July 19th closing date are currently under evaluation by the SEAI. I expect Service Providers to be informed of the status of their application later this month. All successful applications will be funded from within my Department's budget allocation for energy efficiency retrofit schemes in 2019 and 2020. Works on homes should not commence until a grant approval letter of offer is received.