My Department launched the Energy Efficiency Retrofitting Programme in 2013 with the aim of funding retrofit of social homes requiring insulation and energy upgrade works. Since the programme commenced in 2013 over 73,500 units of social housing stock have been retrofitted with a total exchequer spend of €161 million under the scheme. Homes owned by Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) are not part of the local authority owned housing stock and therefore are not eligible to apply for funding under a budget dedicated to the retrofit of local authority owned homes.
The Energy Efficiency Programme has been revised in 2021 with an increased Budget of €65 million, to include the Midlands Retrofit Programme, and focuses on ensuring that the fabric of the home is upgraded and an energy efficient heating system is provided. This revised programme will see a significant upscaling to ‘deeper retrofit’ on what has been completed by local authorities in previous years and will target 2,400 social homes for upgrade works in 2021, 750 of which relate to the Midlands Retrofit Pilot.
Under the new programme costs on individual homes could vary from €13,000 to €45,000. The final cost on a home will depend on its pre-works building standard and energy performance. It is a matter for each local authority to choose which properties to select for retrofitting from the allocation notified to them by my Department.
An annualised breakdown of the units retrofitted under the Energy Efficiency Retrofit programme for the years 2013-2020, is available on my Department's website at the following link. Details in respect of labour costs attributed to the Programme are not captured. www.gov.ie/en/publication/668c1-energy-efficiency-retrofitting-programme-expenditure-output/.
