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Grant Payments

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 July 2020

Tuesday, 28 July 2020

Questions (111)

James Browne

Question:

111. Deputy James Browne asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his plans to expand the support scheme for renewable heat; if he plans to make the SSRH scheme less complicated; if he will consider those that are not able to benefit from the scheme due to the fact that they were already using renewable heat prior to the introduction of the scheme. [18704/20]

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Written answers

The Support Scheme for Renewable Heat (SSRH) was developed to financially support the adoption of renewable heating systems by commercial, industrial, agricultural, district heating and other non-domestic heat users.  The primary objective of the SSRH is to contribute to meeting Ireland’s renewable energy targets while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) is the administrator of the Scheme. This role includes assessment and approval of projects.  The SSRH features a broad range of necessary qualification criteria and financial safeguards. These have been put in place to ensure that the outcomes associated with similar schemes in other jurisdictions are not repeated in Ireland.

Under the European Commission's State aid approval for the scheme, only new projects can be supported.

The SSRH has been fully operational since June 2019. This is a relatively short time and, therefore, there is limited data available to fully assess the effectiveness of the scheme and to provide a basis for significant changes.  My Department, together with the SEAI, will continue to monitor and develop the scheme, to ensure effectiveness across both the operational support and also the installation grant for heat pumps where uptake has been slow so far.

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