Vol. 555 No. 2
401 Mr. Penrose asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government if his Department provides grant aid for persons erecting new houses which are intended to use renewable energy sources, such as installation of a geothermal heat pump to power the underflooring system in a house; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18377/02]
My Department does not specifically grant aid the construction of houses which use renewable energy. However, grants are available to developers and builders from Sustainable Energy Ireland, under the House of Tomorrow programme, for clusters of demonstration houses that comprise a range of superior energy technologies and practices. These grants are not available to individuals or for individual houses.
The National Climate Change Strategy, adopted by the Government and published in October 2000, in line with the Green Paper on Sustainable Energy, also identifies the possibility of restructuring the existing new house grant, so that larger grants would be available for more energy efficient houses. The Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2002 contains a provision allowing the Minister to make regulations to provide greater flexibility for the payment of new house grants in the future, including differential rates of grants to encourage more efficient use of energy and/or the use of renewable forms of energy.
In order to encourage greater energy efficiency in housing regulations amending part L of the building regulations on the conservation of fuel and energy were made in June of this year. The new regulations will require higher standards of insulation in new dwellings with effect from 1 January 2003.
The introduction of differential rates of new house grants for more energy efficient houses would require the formulation of verifiable voluntary standards of improved energy efficiency in excess of those in the recently revised part L of the building regulations and further consideration is being given to formulating such standards.
