Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 November 2023
99. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the current wait time for the SEAI better energy warmer homes scheme; the current average cost per home; how many homes were covered in 2022, and projected for 2023; the budget for 2023 and in 2024; what measures are being taken to reduce the waiting time; how many homes he projects to be retrofitted next year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50389/23]
View answerThe Better Energy Warmer Homes Scheme delivers a range of energy efficiency measures free of charge to households vulnerable to energy poverty. This year's budget of €148.5 million is the highest ever.
Increased awareness of the multiple benefits of retrofit and improvements to the Warmer Homes Scheme is driving increased levels of demand for the scheme with over 20,000 applications received over the period from January 2022 to end September 2023.
The Scheme is delivering deeper upgrades with more emissions reductions and energy savings for homeowners. The average cost of upgrades increased to €24,000 in 2023 and these deeper upgrades take a longer time per home to complete.
The average waiting time from application to completion in Q3 2023 was just under 20 months. This is a decrease from an average of 26 months for homes completed in 2022. The reduction in wait times follows a range of measures introduced by the Department and SEAI including enhanced budgets; increased staffing resources in SEAI; and actions to address supply chain challenges.
SEAI also established a new contractor panel in September this year, adding 7 additional contractors bringing the total to 36. My officials continue to work with the SEAI to maximise and accelerate the output of free energy upgrades delivered.
To end October this year, over 4,500 homes have been upgraded. This is already more homes than were completed under the scheme in all of 2022 when a total of 4,438 homes were completed. We are on target to upgrade 6,000 homes under the scheme by the end of this year.
Budget 2024 includes record funding of €380 million across all SEAI residential and community energy upgrade schemes, including the Solar PV (photovoltaic) Scheme meaning that more funding than ever will be available to make homes warmer, healthier, more comfortable and less expensive to heat. This will be supplemented by additional funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to support next year’s programme of energy upgrades for households at risk of energy poverty.
The final details of the funding allocations to each SEAI scheme and the 2024 retrofit targets are currently being finalised as part of the preparation of the Revised Estimates Volume for 2024 (REV 2024) and the 2024 SEAI business planning process.
