Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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172. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his plans to reduce dependence on fossil fuel usage and to increase usage of renewable energy sources for heating and operating buildings given that this accounts for over one quarter of Ireland’s energy usage; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1575/21]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Over the last decade, Government has progressively strengthened the Building Regulations relating to the conservation of fuel and energy in new dwellings.  The regulations now require new buildings to be at “NZEB” performance levels which is the equivalent of an A2 Building Energy Rating for a typical dwelling.  This also encourages the use of renewable technologies and the movement away from traditional fossil fuels.    For existing buildings, Government has put a number of supports in place across the residential, commercial and public sectors. These supports incentivise projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions by improving energy efficiency and increasing the use of renewable energy.

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. 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. This allocation will kick-start the first phase of our retrofit plan. It is intended to align the delivery of the Phase 2 of the Retrofit Plan with the review of the National Development Plan later this year.

Supports to enable businesses to become more energy efficient are also available from the SEAI.  €17.3 million has been allocated for Business Energy Efficiency (Excellence in Energy Efficient Design, SME & Energy Auditing) and Business Renewable Energy (Support Scheme Renewable Heat) for 2021.  Information on a range of other supports that enable businesses to become more energy efficient including the SEAI’s Energy Academy; information and advisory services; the Large Industry Energy Network; and Accelerated Capital Allowances is available at www.seai.ie .

The Public Sector Retrofit Pathfinder Programme provides capital support to retrofit public buildings with the objective of developing a scalable retrofit model that can be replicated across the wider public sector including schools.  The budget for this scheme has more than doubled to €21 million for 2021.  This increase will provide continued supports to the public sector in delivering on its more ambitious 2030 targets outlined in the Programme for Government and the Climate Action Plan.

The Department, together with the SEAI, is also currently carrying out an updated Comprehensive Assessment of the potential for efficient heating and cooling in Ireland. In addition, a policy framework to encourage the development of district heating in Ireland is being finalised with a view to completing this work in early 2021.