Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Better Energy Warmer Homes Scheme delivers a range of energy efficiency measures free of charge to households vulnerable to energy poverty. This year's budget of €148.5 million is the highest ever.

Increased awareness of the multiple benefits of retrofit and improvements to the Warmer Homes Scheme is driving increased levels of demand for the scheme with over 20,000 applications received over the period from January 2022 to end September 2023.

The Scheme is delivering deeper upgrades with more emissions reductions and energy savings for homeowners. The average cost of upgrades increased to €24,000 in 2023 and these deeper upgrades take a longer time per home to complete.

The average waiting time from application to completion in Q3 2023 was just under 20 months. This is a decrease from an average of 26 months for homes completed in 2022. The reduction in wait times follows a range of measures introduced by the Department and SEAI including enhanced budgets; increased staffing resources in SEAI; and actions to address supply chain challenges.

SEAI also established a new contractor panel in September this year, adding 7 additional contractors bringing the total to 36. My officials continue to work with the SEAI to maximise and accelerate the output of free energy upgrades delivered.

To end October this year, over 4,500 homes have been upgraded. This is already more homes than were completed under the scheme in all of 2022 when a total of 4,438 homes were completed. We are on target to upgrade 6,000 homes under the scheme by the end of this year.

Budget 2024 includes record funding of €380 million across all SEAI residential and community energy upgrade schemes, including the Solar PV (photovoltaic) Scheme meaning that more funding than ever will be available to make homes warmer, healthier, more comfortable and less expensive to heat. This will be supplemented by additional funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to support next year’s programme of energy upgrades for households at risk of energy poverty.

The final details of the funding allocations to each SEAI scheme and the 2024 retrofit targets are currently being finalised as part of the preparation of the Revised Estimates Volume for 2024 (REV 2024) and the 2024 SEAI business planning process.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Warmer Homes Scheme (WHS) delivers a range of energy efficiency measures free of charge to low-income households vulnerable to energy poverty. Demand for the Scheme is very high with over 20,000 applications received over the period from January 2022 to end September 2023.

The Scheme is delivering deeper and more complex upgrades in recent years, with the average cost of upgrades increasing to €24,000 in 2023.

There are a number of home energy improvements offered as part of the WHS, with a focus on energy efficiency first (i.e. improving the energy performance of the roof and walls). The upgrades that will be recommended for a property will depend on many factors, including age, size, type and condition of the property. For each eligible home, Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland’s (SEAI)’s technical surveyor will determine which upgrades can be installed and funded. These can include:

• Attic insulation and appropriate ventilation;
• Wall insulation and appropriate ventilation – cavity wall, external wall or dry lining depending on the property;
• Secondary measures – lagging jackets, draughtproofing, energy efficient lighting;
• In certain circumstances: heating system replacements, window replacements
• A new Solar PV scheme for vulnerable customers registered as being dependent on electrically powered assistive devices, is currently underway. This €20m scheme is targeted to provide direct support to over 3,000 vulnerable customers who may have limited opportunity to reduce their demand. The scheme will provide customers with a 2 KW solar PV system, in order to meet some of their electricity requirements.