Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 July 2018
2108. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the estimated cost of increasing the grant under the better energy home scheme for heat pumps by €1,000 for air-to-water, ground-source-to-water, water-to-water heat pumps and increasing the grant for air-to-air heat pumps by €400. [34963/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraI have allocated €84m in funding for grants for householders to improve the energy efficiency of their homes. These grants are administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), which also provides the expert technical advice for the setting of the grant levels. As the Deputy will be aware, I have made significant expansions to the measures available in 2018, as part of the drive to support householders to make their homes as energy efficient as possible as the first step in switching away from fossil fuels to renewable heating systems. This is known as the 'fabric first' principle.
The grants for air, water and ground source heat pumps were launched in April 2018. The grants were set at €3,500 for all categories except air-to-air heat pumps for which a grant of €600 is available. Therefore, increasing the grant levels as set out by the Deputy would result in grants of €4,500 and €1,000 respectively. The impact this would have on the overall allocation for the grant programme is dependent on demand, which at this point is estimated to be 1,000 households in 2019. This would result in an increased cost for the grant programme of around €1 million.
