Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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86. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of planned changes which he is preparing with regard to the SEAI scheme for those in receipt of a fuel allowance payment. [16719/20]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Better Energy Warmer Homes Scheme is funded by my Department and administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). The scheme delivers a range of energy efficiency measures free of charge to low income households vulnerable to energy poverty. To date over 142,000 homes have received free upgrades under the scheme, leaving the occupants better able to afford to heat their homes to an adequate level. The Warmer Homes Scheme budget allocation for 2020 is €52.8 million - a record level of funding for this scheme.

The Climate Action Plan commits to reviewing ways to better target current energy poverty schemes, such as the Warmer Homes Scheme, to those most in need.  Recommendations in relation to the implementation of changes to the scheme will be finalised shortly.

More generally the Programme for Government commits to assigning some of the increased carbon tax receipts over the next decade  to the establishment of a €5 billion fund for a socially progressive national retrofitting programme targeting all homes but with a particular emphasis on the Midlands region and on social and low-income tenancies.