Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 207, 208, 209 and 210 together.

In February this year, Government approved the establishment of the National Home Energy Upgrade Scheme (NHEUS).  This Scheme introduces a new, highly customer centric, way to undertake home upgrades.

SEAI registered One-Stop-Shops provide an end-to-end service for homeowners. This includes surveying; designing the upgrades; managing the grant process; helping with access to finance; engaging contractors; and quality assurance. 

There are 12 One Stop Shops registered and SEAI is supporting another 10 organisations through the registration process. Once a company successfully passes the two-stage registration process and the SEAI recommendation is approved, an appointment letter is issued to them.

Under the NHEUS, homeowners engage an SEAI registered One Stop Shop (OSS) to manage the grant application process and oversee delivery of the retrofit on their behalf. Homeowners and their OSS agree a contract whereby works must be completed by the OSS within 12 months. To date, 645 homes have been approved for One Stop Shop home energy upgrade grants. This points to a strong pipeline of works for the coming months under the scheme.

The cost of bringing an individual home to a Building Energy Rating (BER) B2 is determined by a number of factors including the size and type of home as well as the starting condition of the home. The Department estimates that the cost can range from €14,000 to €66,000.

The types of works applied for, and the grant support available, under the Scheme are informed by the Home Energy Assessment undertaken by the One Stop Shops. Most recent figures from SEAI show the average OSS home energy grant offer is €20,500, however it is important to note that this average may fluctuate depending on the applications submitted to the SEAI. Feedback from the SEAI shows that measures most requested to date are windows, doors and heat pumps.  

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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My Department is working with the Department of Finance, the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland, the Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland and the European Investment Bank to develop a residential retrofit loan guarantee scheme. The  scheme is part of Ireland’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan and will be co-funded by the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility and Exchequer funding. It will also be backed by a counter guarantee provided by the EIB. The loan guarantee will provide risk protection to retail credit institutions participating in the scheme. This will enable credit institutions to offer loans with reduced interest rates to private homeowners and non-corporate landlords and make comprehensive home energy efficiency upgrades more affordable to consumers. This approach will signal to the banking sector, new sustainable business opportunities associated with retrofit and the transition to a low carbon economy as well as increasing the volume of retrofit activity within the State. It is anticipated that the Scheme will provide a lending portfolio of up to €500 million.

Significant progress has been made to date with the "Invitation for Pre-Qualification Stage" to identify interested "On-Lenders" concluded and the "Invitation for Award Stage" underway. This is an important milestone in the development of the scheme as it will determine how much of the guaranteed loan portfolio will be allocated to each "On-Lender". It will also set out the interest rate pricing approach under the scheme. It is expected that the loans under the guarantee will be available early next year.