Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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80. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment further to Parliamentary Question No. 141 of 24 February 2022, the breakdown of the €8 million that has been allocated to support the Sustainable Energy Communities and community activation in 2022; the amount of funding that has been allocated for the Sustainable Energy Communities in 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27531/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Sustainable Energy Communities (SEC) Programme is administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) on behalf of my Department.  The Programme supports the low carbon energy transition by developing skills and capacity, at a community level, in determining how to use less energy, adopting lower carbon options for transport and heating, shifting energy use to off-peak times or investing in smart technologies. SECs will continue to be supported by Government to expand their roles as ‘activators’ in their community. At the end of April there were a total of 650 SECs in the Network with a target to grow this number to 1,500 by 2030.

Funding of €8 million has been allocated to support the Sustainable Energy Communities and community activation in 2022 which will be used to provide members of the SEC Network with a range of supports including:

- the provision of free mentoring services, and 

- 100% financial support to SECs to develop their community Energy Master Plans.

In line with the actions under the National Retrofit Plan, and as part of the €8 million funding allocation to the Sustainable Energy Communities and community activation, the Department and SEAI are working toward the introduction of a targeted and more streamlined strand of the Communities Grant scheme focused on smaller projects for retrofitting homes, to be introduced later this year.