Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 March 2022
168. Deputy Neale Richmond asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications his views that a limited number of approved contractors will lead to delays in accessing SEAI grants for many customers; if steps are being taken to address same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11345/22]
View answerThe process to register as an SEAI approved contractor is open to any contractor that agrees to adhere to SEAI standards, guidelines, procedures and codes of practice. This registry is necessary to protect the customer and Exchequer funding by ensuring registered contractors agree to the SEAI Quality Assurance and Disciplinary Procedures for Contractors.To support the highly ambitious scale up of activity and to help grow the supply side the National Retrofit Plan includes "supply chain, skills and standards" as one of the four key pillars. The plan includes measures to expand the capacity of the supply chain and increase the number of skilled workers while maintaining quality and driving demand. Crucially the new Plan provides for a step change in the approach to supporting home energy upgrades. New measures announced recently include: - The new National Home Energy Upgrade Scheme with substantially increased grant levels of up to 50% of the cost of a typical home upgrade to a B2 BER standard (up from 30%-35% previously);
- One Stop Shops providing an end-to-end project management service, including access to financing, for home energy upgrades; and,
- A special enhanced grant rate, equivalent to 80% of the typical cost, for attic and cavity wall insulation for all households, to urgently reduce energy use as part of the government’s response to current exceptionally high energy prices.These enhancements are designed to drive sustained realisable demand and will complement the Exchequer commitment to invest €8 billion up to 2030 and the streamlining of SEAI grant processes, to transform the retrofit sector into an all year round business. In turn this will encourage, facilitate and enable the supply chain to scale up and grow, creating thousands of high quality jobs and delivering on this critical national objective.
