Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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683. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the estimated number of local authority owned houses that are heated mainly by solid fuel, in tabular form; the number where solid fuel is the main fuel used for cooking, by local authority; the percentage of these houses that represent the total local authority houses in each local authority area; the plans he has to fund a scheme to enable local authorities to provide alternative and more environmentally sustainable energy sources in these houses for cooking and heating; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20860/22]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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My Department does not collate information in relation to local authority housing stock according to their heating source or cooking source. However, this information may be available or requested from each individual local authority.

My Department does provide funding under the Energy Efficiency Retrofit Programme (EERP) to support local authorities with the retrofit of local authority owned homes requiring insulation and energy upgrade works. Since the programme commenced in 2013 over 75,000 homes have been retrofitted with a total exchequer spend of €184 million under the scheme.

In response to the Programme for Government commitment, my Department launched a newly revised ten year Energy Efficiency Programme in 2021 for local authority owned housing. This new programme set a BER performance requirement of “B2” or cost optimal level. The upscaling of the works included in the programme sees a substantial overall increase in funding made available for insulation, windows and doors, with a significant increase for the upgrading of the heating system, specifically for the installation of a Heat Pump and associated works. The installation of gas/oil boilers are no longer supported under the energy efficiency programme funded by my Department.

An annualised breakdown of the funding provided under the Energy Efficiency Retrofit programme for the years 2013-2021, is available on my Department's website at the following link:

www.gov.ie/en/publication/668c1-energy-efficiency-retrofitting-programme-expenditure-output/

The Department also introduced a pilot Midlands Energy Retrofit Programme in 2020-2022, the details of which are found below.

gov.ie - Midlands Energy Retrofit Programme - Expenditure and Units (www.gov.ie)

In 2022, the EERP will see a significant increase in funding to €85 million, allowing approximately 2,400 homes nationally to be upgraded to a B2 or cost optimal equivalent (BER). Allocations have issued to each local authority in this regard.