Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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336. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the breakdown of the cost per school for retrofits under the pathfinder scheme. [32704/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The School energy retrofit pathfinder programme is jointly funded from the Department of Education and Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications.

This Pathfinder is paving the way for, and informing, a much larger national schools programme for the energy retrofit of schools built prior to 2008 from 2023 onwards as included in the NDP. It is facilitating research on a range of typical retrofit options, which will have been tried and tested. It is providing valuable development information for a solution driven delivery strategy which will be founded on a good evidence base that has proven the robustness and scalability of renewable solutions within the schools sector.

Since 2017, 39 schools have seen over €22.9 million invested in energy efficiency retrofits with an average cost per school in the region of €600,000.

The pathfinder has focused in 2021 on renewable decarbonised heating solutions with associated works to achieve reduced heat losses for decarbonised solution compatibility, this includes six schools with a budget of €14 million.