The Warmer Homes Scheme offers free energy upgrades for eligible homeowners who are most at risk of energy poverty. Eligibility for the Scheme is linked to receipt of certain Department of Social Protection payments. Since 2000, over 146,000 free upgrades have been supported by the scheme.
A budget allocation of €109 million has been provided for the scheme this year. This will support an increase in the number of free home upgrades, from an average of 177 per month in 2021 to 400 per month this year, helping to reduce waiting times.
In line with commitments in the National Retrofit Plan, I recently announced a number of changes to the scheme so that it better targets those most in need:
- The scheme will target the worst performing properties, by prioritising homes that were built and occupied before 1993 and have a pre-works BER of E, F or G. Existing applications will not be affected by this change.
- For the first time, applications will be accepted from qualifying homeowners who previously received supports under the scheme, but who could still benefit from deeper measures.
- The scheme eligibility criteria will also be extended to include those in receipt of the Disability Allowance for over 6 months and have a child under 7 years.
Outside of the Warmer Homes Scheme, as part of the Government’s response to the current exceptionally high energy prices, householders will be supported though the introduction of an emergency measure which will provide a €100 credit to all domestic electricity accounts. In addition, significantly enhanced grants for home insulation have been introduced. This includes very generous grants for cavity wall and attic insulation that now cover 80% of the typical cost. These are highly cost-effective upgrade measures that can be deployed rapidly and at scale this year which can make homes warmer and reduce energy costs.
These measures are in addition to the range of welfare supports provided by the Minister for Social Protection and the €85m allocated to local authority housing retrofit under the programme provided by my colleague the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
