Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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1001. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the estimated number of family homes likely to be retrofitted on foot of a budget of €160 million fund; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4933/20]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) is funded by my Department to administer energy efficiency grant schemes for both the residential and commercial sector.At €146 million, the 2020 budget allocation for energy efficiency is the highest ever.  This represents a €29 million increase over the 2019 budget and a nearly three-fold increase on 2016 funding.  This funding will be used to upgrade approximately 23,200 homes and 800 businesses across the country.  It will also help towards the achievement of our Climate Action Plan targets.  The number of homes that could be retrofitted for a budget of €160 million would depend on the mix of energy poor homes that would be fully funded by the Exchequer and those that would receive lower levels of grant support.

The Climate Action Plan sets an ambitious target of 500,000 energy efficiency retrofits by 2030.  Achievement of this target will be supported by the Project Ireland 2040 allocation of €3.7 billion as well as the range of measures identified in the Plan.

To deliver our target, a Retrofit Taskforce has been established which will develop a new retrofitting delivery model. Our plan will:

- Group homes in the same area together to drive down cost;

- Start with social homes owned by the local authorities, but will embrace privately owned homes in the wider community;

- Develop smart finance options; and

- Introduce easy pay back models.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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1002. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the estimated cost of extending grant aid from the SEAI to cover energy efficient re-equipment in poultry, pigs and horticulture not already covered by the targeted agriculture modernisation scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4936/20]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) provides guidance and assistance for businesses to improve their energy efficiency. These include energy management training and mentoring to help save energy through a structured management system.  The cost of providing grant aid to cover energy efficiency measures in the agriculture and horticulture sector would depend on a range of factors including the eligibility criteria, the proportion of capital funding that would be provided by the grant, the scale of installations supported and the uptake of such a support. Given the impact these factors could have it is not practical to provide an estimate of the cost.