Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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164. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the estimated cost of increasing SEAI funding for supports to businesses for microgeneration and energy retrofitting, respectively by 50%. [25316/20]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Programme for Government commits to an average 7% per annum reduction in overall greenhouse gas emissions from 2021 to 2030 (a 51% reduction over the decade) and to achieving net zero emissions by 2050. This will require a significant increase in the level of energy efficiency building retrofits that will be carried out. In order to support this increase, further policies and measures will need to be developed and additional funding will be required. My Department allocated €6 million capital in 2020 to SEAI for business energy efficiency. The additional cost of increasing this allocation by 50% would be €3 million. While there are currently no specific supports for microgeneration in business, the Better Energy Communities Scheme funds community-based partnerships to improve the energy efficiency of the building stock in their area and can support microgeneration. It is applicable to homes, community facilities and businesses. The capital allocated for the Scheme in 2020 was increased to €18 million. The additional cost of increasing this allocation by 50% would be €9 million.