Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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307. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the position regarding the provision of home heating for local authority housing in cases in which a council house has been made available and the closure of its fireplace has taken place; and the position where gas is unavailable, in particular. [56741/22]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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In accordance with section 58 of the Housing Act 1966, local authorities are responsible for the management and maintenance of their housing stock including carrying out pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, the implementation of a planned maintenance programme and carrying out responsive repairs. Local authorities also have a legal obligation to ensure that all of their tenanted properties are compliant with the provisions of the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019.

Separate to the local authorities' legal obligation to manage and maintain their own housing stock, my Department provides annual funding support for the implementation of a national Energy Efficiency Retrofitting Programme (EERP).

In this regard, the Programme for Government contains a commitment, led by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, to ensure that 500,000 homes are retrofitted to a B2/Cost Optimal energy performance by 2030. In response to this commitment, my Department has undertaken the delivery of 36,500 retrofits by the local authority sector through the newly revised ten year (EERP) for local authority owned housing, launched in 2021. 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 selection of dwellings for inclusion in the EERP, and the retrofitting measures to be implemented in each home, is a matter for each individual local authority in their administration of the programme.