Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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323. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if an estate (details supplied) is being considered under the energy efficiency funding scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49913/22]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Since 2013, Exchequer funding has been provided through my Department's Energy Efficiency Retrofit Programme 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 to ensure that 500,000 homes are retrofitted to a B2/Cost Optimal energy performance by 2030, my Department has committed to the delivery of 36,500 retrofits by the local authority sector and launched a newly revised ten year Energy Efficiency Programme in 2021 for local authority owned housing. This extensive programme focuses on ensuring that the fabric of the home is upgraded and an energy efficient heating system is provided, namely a heat pump.

The scheme itself is administered by the local authority as the management and maintenance of local authority housing stock rests with each local authority under Section 58 of the Housing Act 1966. As such, all decisions in relation to the homes selected under the programme or the works to be completed on each individual home is a matter for Cork City Council.

My Department has received correspondence from Cork City Council on the matter and is working with the council to identify the most appropriate solution for them in relation to this estate.