Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 24 February 2021
304. Deputy Francis Noel Duffy asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of social housing units that have been retrofitted drawing on the €65 million allocation announced in October 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9738/21]
View answerMy Department launched the Energy Efficiency Retrofitting Programme in 2013, with the aim of funding retrofit of social homes requiring insulation and energy upgrade works. Since the programme commenced in 2013 over 73,500 units of social housing stock have been 'shallow' retrofitted with a total exchequer spend of €161 million under the scheme.
A key objective of the Programme for Government is the retrofit of 500,000 homes by 2030 to a B2/Cost Optimal BER standard. It is expected that approximately 36,500 of those will be local authority owned homes. The 2021 Energy Efficiency Programme is a newly revised programme designed around the Programme for Government commitment with a significant increase in funding support of €65 million. €20 million has already been allocated to the Midlands Retrofit Pilot as part of the 'Just Transition' programme leaving a balance available for allocation under the 2021 Energy Efficiency Retrofitting Programme of €45m.
Last week I launched the newly revised Programme with an initial allocation to local authorities of €35 million in funding for the retrofitting of 1,293 homes. The balance of €10m will then be allocated to local authorities who demonstrate an ability to complete the additional work and spend the full allocation in 2021. This Programme will see a significant upscaling, from a ‘shallow’ to ‘deeper retrofit’, on what has been completed by local authorities in previous years and will target 2,400 social homes for upgrade works in 2021, 750 of which relate to the Midlands Retrofit Pilot.
