Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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161. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the reason there is no stand-alone retrofit grant for community groups akin to the better energy homes grant; and the reason they must apply in block grants with homes and businesses under the community grant. [33326/21]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Communities Energy Grant Scheme (formerly known as the Better Energy Communities Scheme) makes grant funding available for community-based partnerships to improve the energy efficiency of the building stock in their area. This popular scheme supports partnership approaches that deliver energy savings to a range of building types including public, commercial and community buildings with a particular focus on using the projects to deliver home retrofits to support Climate Action Plan objectives. The 2021 budget for the scheme, at €30 million, is a 50% increase on the 2020 allocation and demand for the scheme has been very strong.

The partnership approach used by the scheme has proved to be successful for a number of years. By bringing together groups of buildings under the same retrofit programme, community projects facilitate community-wide energy improvements more efficiently and cost effectively than might otherwise be possible.

My Department is also currently working with SEAI to develop additional supports for community based projects and Sustainable Energy Communities (SECs). Details of the initiative will be announced later this year.