My Department actively participated on the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs steering group which produced the ‘Skills for Zero Carbon” report. The report provides a valuable market analysis on the nature and quantity of the skills needed to achieve our national retrofit targets as outlined in the Climate Action Plan and National Retrofit Plan. Building up capacity in the retrofit sector from current levels to a point where it can deliver on our national targets will require the right funding and initiatives to stimulate and support the market to invest and attract new entrants.
The National Retrofit Plan, published last November, has already provided certainty to the sector in terms of the unprecedented commitment by Government to support residential and community retrofit over the next decade. The budget of €8 billion to the end of the decade and annual allocations published in the National Retrofit Plan, gives confidence to the sector to grow, take on staff, invest and innovate. The new SEAI grant schemes and expansion of the Local Authority Retrofit Programme allow year-round working as compared to the stop-start programme previously in place, which held the sector back.
New and expanding businesses in the retrofit sector can face challenges as they develop and expand. Therefore, SEAI will work with these businesses to encourage them to avail of the range of supports available through the Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs), which include financial supports, training programmes and mentoring.
Expanding the retrofit workforce will also be key. The Expert Group on Future Skills Needs report indicates that we need to increase the number of full time equivalent workers from 4,000 to 17,000 by the middle of the decade. Funding and operational certainty is a key step here. Furthermore, my colleague the Minister for Further and Higher Education has provided €17 million to increase the number of retrofit and NZEB places to 4,550 this year. Minister Harris is also supporting two retrofit centres of excellence with three more to be in place later this year.
