Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 23 March 2022
12. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications further to Parliamentary Question Nos. 160, 161 and 162 of 2 November 2021, if he will request the SEAI to provide the information sought by this Deputy in 2021 given the SEAI has not provided a response. [15191/22]
View answerI would like to apologise to the Deputy for the delay in sending on the requested data from previous questions submitted, which was due to an oversight by my Department.
My Department funds a number of grant schemes, administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) to support homeowners to improve the energy efficiency of their properties. Since 2000, over 465,000 homeowners have upgraded their homes with support from these schemes, representing nearly one home in four across the country. This has resulted in warmer, healthier and more comfortable homes that are easier to heat and light.
The SEAI has a number of schemes in place to support homeowners to upgrade their properties including the fully funded Better Energy Warmer Homes Scheme and a number of part-funded schemes such as the Community Energy Grant Scheme, the Solar PV Scheme and the recently announced National Home Energy Upgrade (Retrofit) Scheme. The new National Home Energy Upgrade Scheme offers increased grant levels of up to 50% of the cost of a typical B2 home energy upgrade with a heat pump (up from the previous grant level of 30-35%).
In addition to the schemes funded by my Department and operated by the SEAI, it should be noted that the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage also support the retrofitting of local authority homes. In 2021, they provided funding of €65 million for energy upgrades of Local Authority homes.
The number of private, public and local authority homes upgraded through SEAI Grant Schemes from 2017 to 2020 is set out in Table 1 below. While Local Authority homes were funded under the Warmth and Wellbeing scheme, and over the 2017-2019 period under the Community scheme, a breakdown for Local Authority homes completed under these schemes would be available from each local authority but is not separately collated by SEAI. Activity under the Schemes, and the associated expenditure, were significantly impacted in both 2020 and 2021 by the COVID pandemic. Works under the Schemes recommenced in line with activity in the residential construction sector and activity ramped up again towards the end of last year.
Table 1 - Breakdown of Dwellings upgraded via the SEAI Grant Schemes
|
Type of Dwellings |
|||
|
Total of All Schemes |
Private |
Public (AHB) |
Local Authorities |
|
2017 |
21,537 |
12 |
2 |
|
2018 |
21,303 |
63 |
37 |
|
2019 |
24,552 |
- |
18 |
|
2020 |
21,557 |
- |
16 |
The information the Deputy requested regarding the average cost of home energy retrofits for each of the SEAI Schemes is detailed in Table 2 below. SEAI will forward separately the data for the Deep Retrofit Scheme directly to the Deputy.
Table 2 - Average Grant per Scheme* 2017 – 2020.
|
2020 |
Average € value of grant awarded |
|
BEH |
€1,639 |
|
BEWH |
€14,820 |
|
W&W |
€21,506 |
|
BEC |
€13,157 |
|
BEF |
€0 |
|
Solar PV |
€2,521 |
|
2019 |
|
|
BEH |
€1,278 |
|
BEWH |
€12,671 |
|
W&W |
€24,600 |
|
BEC |
€14,182 |
|
BEF |
€6,154 |
|
Solar PV |
€2,345 |
|
2018 |
|
|
BEH |
€1,342 |
|
BEWH |
€6,758 |
|
W&W |
€26,960 |
|
BEC |
€9,377 |
|
BEF |
€4,842 |
|
Solar PV |
€1,765 |
|
2017 |
|
|
BEH |
€1,159 |
|
BEWH |
€3,451 |
|
W&W |
€18,186 |
|
BEC |
€7,150 |
|
BEF |
€2,903 |
*Better Energy Homes (BEH), Better Energy Warmer Homes (BEWH), Warmth & Wellbeing (W&W), Better Energy Communities (BEC), Better Energy Finance (BEF) and Solar PV schemes.
