Written answers

Thursday, 21 January 2021

Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment

Grant Payments

Photo of Darren O'RourkeDarren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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25. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the State-funded retrofitting grants available in 2021, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3338/21]

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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My Department funds a number of grant schemes to support homeowners, communities, commercial and public sector bodies to improve the energy efficiency of their properties. These are administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).

The SEAI residential retrofit schemes offer partial grants for individuals who can afford to contribute to the cost of upgrades as well as free energy efficiency improvements for people at risk of energy poverty. Since 2000, over 400,000 homeowners have upgraded their homes with support from these schemes, representing nearly one home in four across the country. This has resulted in warmer, healthier and more comfortable homes that are easier and cheaper to heat and light. Budget 2021 provided €221.5 million in capital funding for SEAI residential and community retrofit programmes. This represents an 82% increase on the 2020 allocation and is the largest amount ever for the schemes.

Further information on the residential supports is available at .

SEAI grants that enable businesses and the public sector to become more energy efficient include the Community Energy Grants, Excellence in Energy Efficient Design (EXEED) and the Public Sector Retrofit Pathfinder programmes. Since 2018, over €44 million in capital funding has supported energy related projects in over 240 public buildings and supported over 600 beneficiaries under the business energy supports schemes. SEAI also administer the Support Scheme for Renewable Heat which provides grant supports for the installation of heat pumps, and operation support (i.e. multi-annual support for biomass and anaerobic digestion heating systems). Budget 2021 provided €38 million in capital funding for SEAI commercial and public sector programmes.

Further information on the business and public sector supports is available at .

The information requested for 2021 is presented in the table below.

2021 Grants

Better Energy Homes Scheme

Better Energy Warmer Homes Scheme

Better Energy Warmth and Wellbeing Scheme

National Retrofit Programme (One Stop Shop Development Scheme)

Community Energy Grants (formerly Better Energy Communities)

Better Energy Finance Scheme

Solar PV

Sustainable Energy Communities

Excellence in Energy Efficient Design (EXEED)

Support Scheme for Renewable Heat

Project Assistance Grants

Photo of Darren O'RourkeDarren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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26. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the total funding provided by SEAI in retrofitting grants in 2019 and 2020 by the total funding provided in each local authority area in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3339/21]

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) administers a range of grant schemes to support homeowners to improve the energy efficiency of their properties. Partial grants are available for individuals that can afford to contribute to the cost of upgrades as well as free energy efficiency retrofits for people at risk of energy poverty.

The following tables present public funding in 2019 and 2020 per county under the schemes where such data breakdown is available.

2019 data in EURO Preliminary 2020 data in EURO
County Total per county County Total per county
Carlow 1,085,332 Carlow 445,912
Cavan 1,136,870 Cavan 667,032
Clare 1,224,908 Clare 813,069
Cork 6,225,727 Cork 5,626,208
Donegal 1,946,554 Donegal 1,061,412
Dublin 28,906,149 Dublin 20,176,467
Galway 3,623,368 Galway 2,503,888
Kerry 1,717,276 Kerry 1,447,622
Kildare 3,051,671 Kildare 2,359,287
Kilkenny 1,391,444 Kilkenny 950,916
Laois 1,049,672 Laois 563,510
Leitrim 491,090 Leitrim 248,923
Limerick 1,895,482 Limerick 1,595,632
Longford 514,765 Longford 317,337
Louth 2,451,028 Louth 1,017,683
Mayo 2,568,052 Mayo 1,489,265
Meath 3,527,062 Meath 2,446,556
Monaghan 445,065 Monaghan 521,023
Offaly 1,088,571 Offaly 747,500
Roscommon 854,616 Roscommon 938,725
Sligo 948,760 Sligo 882,846
Tipperary 2,615,004 Tipperary 1,785,321
Waterford 2,740,063 Waterford 1,808,695
Westmeath 1,595,326 Westmeath 1,056,539
Wexford 2,159,384 Wexford 1,761,225
Wicklow 2,702,971 Wicklow 2,015,792
Total 77,956,210 Total 55,248,383

Expenditure reported for Better Energy Homes, Better Energy Warmer Homes, Deep Retrofit and Solar PV schemes refers to grant expenditure only.

In addition, projects under Community Energy Grant and Better Energy Finance schemes typically aggregate properties from across a number of counties so it is not possible to report expenditure on a county by county basis. The expenditure for these schemes is shown in the tables below.

2019 data in EURO Preliminary 2020 data in EURO
Community Energy Grants 20,511,983 Community Energy Grants 18,703,000
Better Energy Finance 870,000 Better Energy Finance 50,000
Total 21,381,983 Total 18,753,000

Expenditure reported for Community Energy Grants refers to total capital expenditure. Expenditure for Better Energy Finance is rounded.

In certain cases, expenditure can be incurred and accounted for in a year different to the year when projects are physically completed and counted as such.

Photo of Darren O'RourkeDarren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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27. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if equality impact assessments have been conducted on retrofitting schemes; if so, the findings of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3340/21]

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) administers a range of grant schemes to support homeowners to improve the energy efficiency of their properties. Partial grants are available for individuals that can afford to contribute to the cost of upgrades as well as free energy efficiency retrofits for people at risk of energy poverty.

Since 2000, over 400,000 homeowners have upgraded their homes with support from these schemes. Over 142,000 of these were free upgrades for lower income households. This has resulted in warmer, healthier and more comfortable homes that are easier and cheaper to heat and light.

€221.5 million in capital funding has been provided this year through my Department's Vote to the SEAI for residential and community retrofit schemes. This represents an 82% increase on the 2020 allocation and is the largest amount ever for the schemes. Of this amount, €109 million is allocated to provide free upgrades for lower income households with the balance of €112.5 million to be spent on expanding existing SEAI grant schemes and introducing new initiatives.

The Programme for Government and the Climate Action Plan set ambitious targets to retrofit 500,000 older homes to a Building Energy Rating of B2/cost optimal and to install 400,000 heat pumps in existing buildings over the next 10 years. The development of a new retrofit plan to achieve these targets is well underway. The impacts of the plan will be considered in line with the requirements of the Government approval process.

A new Statement of Strategy for my Department is currently being developed in accordance with the requirements of the Public Service Management Act 1997. An important part of the development process involves scanning the external environment to ensure that the Strategy reflects changes and challenges in society and the economy, including any statutory requirements such as the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014. I will ensure that the relevant requirements of that Act are fully reflected in the Statement of Strategy.

Photo of Darren O'RourkeDarren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

28. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the number of persons on waiting lists for each SEAI grant scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3341/21]

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) administers a number of grant schemes to support homeowners to improve the energy efficiency of their properties. Partial grants are available for individuals that can afford to contribute to the cost of upgrades as well as free energy efficiency retrofits for people at risk of energy poverty.

€221.5 million in capital funding has been provided this year through my Department's Vote to the SEAI for residential and community retrofit schemes. This represents an 82% increase on the 2020 allocation and is the largest amount ever for the schemes. Of this amount, €109 million is allocated to provide free upgrades for lower income households with the balance of €112.5 million to be spent on expanding existing SEAI grant schemes and introducing new initiatives.

The free upgrade schemes are directly provided by contractors procured by SEAI while the other schemes allow homeowners to procure their own contractor, secure approval from SEAI and draw down a grant once the works are completed.

There are currently over 7,000 homes on the Warmer Homes Scheme work programme with approximately 310 on the Warmth & Wellbeing work programme. This includes homes that are:

·currently undergoing works;

·have been allocated to contractors for works;

·have completed an initial home survey and are awaiting allocation to a contractor,

·or are awaiting the initial survey of their home.

Eligible homes are allocated on a first come, first served basis, and the average time between application and allocation to a contractor is now 22 months. In addition to the increased budget for the schemes referenced above, capacity by the industry to deliver more activity has also increased due to a new, broader contractor panel to provide works which commenced at the end of 2020.

Under the Better Energy Homes programme, works must be completed within an 8 month period, starting from the date of grant approval. Applicants are responsible for selecting their registered contractor and ensuring works are completed to the programme requirements. Better Energy Homes does not assign contractors to applicants so there is no equivalent scheme work programme.

Aggregation based schemes under the National Retrofit Programme approve applications which meet the qualifying criteria on an ongoing basis until the annual budget is exhausted. Work on these schemes can commence as soon as grant approvals are given to each project with works to be completed by mid-October this year.

Full details on the application processes for schemes operated by the SEAI are available at www.seai.ie.

COVID-19 related restrictions have impacted the delivery of retrofit activity under the various schemes. Works are currently suspended in line with the public health measures in place under Level 5 as announced by Government on 6 January, and will recommence as soon as the public health advice allows.

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