Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 July 2020
99. Deputy Neasa Hourigan asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the timeline for the roll-out of a national retrofitting programme; the quarter in which the roll-out will commence; his plans to finance local authority retrofit programmes and grants for owners of private properties; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16462/20]
View answerAs set out in the Programme for Government, a national retrofitting scheme is due to be rolled out in 2021. The national retrofitting scheme will be managed by a newly designated National Retrofitting Delivery Body which is to be in place by the end of 2020. Responsibility for the National Retrofitting Scheme rests with my colleague, the Minister for Communications, Climate Action & Environment.
I am responsible for programmes that support energy efficiency renovations to local authority homes. My Department is providing funding support under the Social Housing Insulation Retrofitting Programme to local authorities since 2013, for insulation and energy efficiency works to their social housing stock.
The programme is implemented in two phases: Phase 1 is a shallow retrofit and ensures that the entire social housing stock has, as a minimum, cavity wall and attic insulation. Phase 2 is a deep retrofit and focuses on the fabric upgrade works to those dwellings with solid/hollow block wall construction and also provides for replacement windows/doors as well as heating upgrades (including upgrades to boilers, or a heat pump to replace the existing boiler). To date €151 million in Exchequer funding has been provided with over 72,000 social housing homes benefiting from upgrades. Funding support will continue in 2020 for this programme from a budget of €25 million, with local authorities selecting their properties for inclusion in the programme and determining the works that are necessary.
As part of the Just Transition proposals for the midlands region, Budget 2020 made provision for €20 million to fund energy efficiency upgrades to local authority houses in the affected counties as a pilot programme. The programme is designed to explore an alternative approach to the upgrade of the social housing stock in the area and also aims to group housing upgrades together so that opportunities for retrofitting will arise for private housing with support from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).
This Programme is being developed under a Retrofit Taskforce and as well as my Department, the preparatory work also involves the Department of Communications, Climate Action & Environment and the SEAI. All involved are working with the relevant local authorities to advance retrofitting in areas of sufficient concentration of local authority housing requiring energy upgrades.
Significant preparatory work has been completed to date, including a framework for the retrofit works and the identification by the local authorities of their selected areas of housing to be retrofitted. However, the cessation of many construction-related activities due to Covid-19 has had a significant impact on the work of the local authorities on this programme as essential preparatory work to survey local authority homes for the retrofit works was affected.
The adoption by the County and City Management Association (CCMA) of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for internal work to housing, has allowed the surveying work to proceed and as this is completed, it is expected that the retrofit works will commence on some local authority homes in August. The midlands pilot along with other pilot schemes which are due to commence rollout in early 2021, will be used to test key elements of the national plan.
