Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) manage a number of residential and community energy upgrade grant support schemes on behalf of my Department.

The 2023 capital funding allocation for SEAI residential and community energy upgrade schemes was €348 million. This allocation was funded by Carbon Tax revenue, the Exchequer, the Energy Efficiency National Fund and funding from European Regional Development Fund.

Expenditure across SEAI residential and community energy upgrade schemes was almost €320million in 2023. This represents an increase of 70% on 2022 levels.

Through this funding, the Government supported almost 48,000 home energy upgrades, including Solar PV, in 2023. This was an increase of 76% on 2022 output levels. Of these, over 17,600 home energy upgrades were to a post works building energy rating of B2 or better - over double the 2022 levels.

Included in the overall figures for 2023 were almost 5,900 fully funded energy upgrades under the Warmer Homes Scheme for low-income households, up 33% on 2022 levels and the equivalent of over 100 free energy upgrades completed under this scheme every week last year. The average value of these fully funded upgrades was €25,000.

A more detailed overview of the SEAI performance against annual targets on the residential and community energy efficiency schemes can be found in their recently published “National Retrofit Plan Full Year Report 2023” - www.seai.ie/publications/SEAI-Retrofit-Full-Year-Report-2023.pdf.

A record capital budget of €437.2 million for SEAI residential and community energy upgrade schemes has been allocated for 2024. The overall allocation will mean that the progress made last year under the National Retrofit Plan will be further built on in 2024.