Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 July 2019
2191. Deputy Colm Brophy asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the amount of funding and the number of sustainable energy community groups that have been supported by the SEAI since 2011, by year and county in tabular form. [32053/19]
View answerThe Sustainable Energy Community (SEC) Network was set up in 2015 to provide support for communities who want to take the first step towards becoming more energy-efficient. The network model is used so that all the different energy users in an area including homes, sports clubs, community centres, churches and businesses can participate. There are now 297 community groups in the SEC network.
SEAI works with members of the network to help them to identify, plan, implement and review a programme of sustainable energy activities for their community and give them access to initial funding. Support provided can include mentoring, training, technical support and project funding.
The recently published Climate Action Plan 2019 envisages a coordinated step-up in the activities of key bodies to support and motivate an increase in practical action at the local authority and community levels, including developing new networks. The plan commits to supporting the expansion of the Sustainable Energy Communities to 500 by 2020, and 1500 by 2030.
While all SECs receive mentoring supports, only communities that are developing their energy master plans get direct funding, hence the differences between the tables below. Almost a third of our communities have already progressed to energy master planning.
Table 1: Amount of funding provided to SECs for the development of local Energy Master Plans. The 'National' category applies to SECs that operate outside of a single region or county.
|
County |
2018 |
2019 |
Grand Total |
|
Cork |
€9,880 |
€9,920 |
€19,800 |
|
Donegal |
€5,000 |
€5,000 |
|
|
Dublin |
€8,812 |
€3,765 |
€12,577 |
|
Galway |
€15,000 |
€15,000 |
|
|
Kerry |
€6,150 |
€6,150 |
|
|
Leitrim |
€4,500 |
€29,018 |
€33,518 |
|
Limerick |
€10,305 |
€10,305 |
|
|
Louth |
€20,000 |
€20,000 |
|
|
Mayo |
€15,000 |
€10,996 |
€25,996 |
|
Monaghan |
€20,000 |
€20,000 |
|
|
Tipperary |
€9,788 |
€9,788 |
|
|
National |
€49,199 |
€49,199 |
|
|
Grand Total |
€103,496 |
€123,836 |
€227,332 |
Table 2: Number of SECs per year and per county, supported by SEAI with Mentors, technical support, events and training.
|
Counties |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
Grand Total |
|
Kildare |
2 |
2 |
||||
|
Kilkenny |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Wexford |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Carlow |
9 |
2 |
11 |
|||
|
Cavan |
1 |
2 |
3 |
|||
|
Clare |
1 |
4 |
2 |
7 |
||
|
Cork |
1 |
6 |
5 |
11 |
7 |
30 |
|
Donegal |
2 |
3 |
6 |
11 |
||
|
Dublin |
1 |
4 |
5 |
9 |
9 |
28 |
|
Dublin |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Galway |
3 |
6 |
5 |
5 |
2 |
21 |
|
Kerry |
1 |
4 |
3 |
6 |
14 |
|
|
Kildare |
2 |
10 |
1 |
13 |
||
|
Kilkenny |
2 |
4 |
4 |
10 |
||
|
Laois |
1 |
2 |
1 |
6 |
10 |
|
|
Leitrim |
2 |
3 |
2 |
7 |
||
|
Limerick |
2 |
5 |
11 |
1 |
19 |
|
|
Longford |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
|
|
Louth |
3 |
2 |
5 |
|||
|
Mayo |
1 |
5 |
5 |
3 |
3 |
17 |
|
Meath |
1 |
7 |
1 |
9 |
||
|
Monaghan |
2 |
2 |
||||
|
Offaly |
3 |
1 |
1 |
5 |
||
|
Roscommon |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
||
|
Sligo |
2 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
||
|
Tipperary |
4 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
12 |
|
|
Waterford |
3 |
3 |
1 |
7 |
||
|
Westmeath |
1 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
11 |
|
|
Wexford |
1 |
4 |
6 |
11 |
||
|
Wicklow |
1 |
1 |
4 |
4 |
10 |
|
|
National |
1 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
7 |
|
|
Grand Total |
10 |
50 |
76 |
104 |
57 |
297 |
