Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

60. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the reason a person can only apply for home insulation through the SEAI once; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that this is causing difficulties for persons who applied to the SEAI previously and now cannot access grant support to better improve the energy efficiency of their home; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4147/21]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

69. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if the SEAI will start to revisit homes in 2021 in which insulation or other energy efficiency works were done in the past under the energy upgrade scheme but which would now benefit from a further upgrade of insulation and or other energy efficiency works as stated on the SEAI website; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4363/21]

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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 60 and 69 together.

The Programme for Government and the Climate Action Plan set ambitious targets to retrofit 500,000 homes to a Building Energy Rating of B2/cost optimal equivalent and to install 400,000 heat pumps in existing buildings over the next 10 years. SEAI retrofit schemes will form a crucial part of our approach to achieving these targets. Full details on the application processes for the range of schemes operated by the SEAI are available at www.seai.ie.

The Warmer Homes Scheme delivers a range of energy efficiency measures free of charge to low income households vulnerable to energy poverty.  Revisits under this scheme are currently not available. This enables the work programme to prioritise eligible homes that have not previously received free upgrades under the scheme. Recommendations on the implementation of changes to the scheme to better target those most in need will be finalised shortly.

The Better Energy Homes scheme aims to improve energy efficiency by providing grant support for energy efficiency upgrades to homeowners whose homes were built prior to 2006. Under the scheme a home cannot receive grant funding twice for the same energy efficiency measure. The rationale for this policy in the case of wall insulation is that applying a second version of wall insulation to a home that has already received one form of wall insulation would result in a lesser amount of energy savings being delivered.

Under the Community Energy Grant Scheme and the National Home Retrofit (One Stop Shop Development) Scheme, grants may be claimed for additional measures to increase the energy efficiency of a home as part of an overall project to achieve a specified target. For example, external wall insulation can be supported in homes that previously received cavity wall insulation where it is determined that it is an appropriate intervention as part of an overall upgrade project to attain B2 or cost optimal and meet the minimum BER uplift.

It is important to note that the grants available through SEAI aim to maximise emission reductions and deliver energy savings for the widest range of homeowners possible. The grants which are available, and their respective eligibility criteria, were selected as the most likely to deliver significant energy savings to homeowners as well as the best value for money for the Exchequer. The grant schemes provided by SEAI are however reviewed on a regular basis.