Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 9 September 2021
42. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the steps his Department is taking to ensure that social housing funded under section 38 of the Health Act 2004 can access energy efficient retrofitting schemes in the future. [41608/21]
View answerSEAI grant schemes will be a central element of the Government's approach to achieving our national retrofit targets. Some €221.5 million in capital funding has been provided this year for SEAI residential and community retrofit programmes. This represents an 82% increase on the 2020 allocation and is the largest amount ever for the schemes. This allocation has facilitated the expansion and improvement of existing SEAI grant schemes and the introduction of new initiatives. A further €65 million has been allocated to retrofit social housing administered by the Department of Housing.
Organisations that provide housing to vulnerable persons and are funded under the Health Act 2004 are eligible to participate in schemes under the national retrofitting programme. Both the Communities Energy Grant Scheme (previously known as the Better Energy Communities Scheme) and the National Home Retrofit Scheme provide funding to upgrade homes for private owners, Approved Housing Bodies and Local Authorities. More details are available on the SEAI website. The recently published 'Housing For All' plan also includes a commitment to introduce a new energy efficiency retrofit scheme for Approved Housing Bodies in Q1 of next year.
In addition, the Public Sector Retrofit Partnership Pathfinder Programme provides capital funding for pathfinder retrofit projects aimed at testing building retrofit approaches and developing a model that can be replicated across the wider public sector. The SEAI / HSE element of this Programme has funded the establishment of Energy Bureaus across a number of regions and has delivered retrofits to over 50 HSE buildings. More details are available on the HSE Energy Bureaus at www.hse.ie/eng/about/who/healthbusinessservices/national-health-sustainability-office/designing-the-built-environment/estates-energy-bureau/.
