The National Retrofit Plan sets out the Government's approach to achieving the Climate Action Plan targets of upgrading the equivalent of 500,000 homes to a Building Energy Rating (BER) of B2/cost optimal level and installing 400,000 heat pumps to replace older, less efficient heating systems by 2030.
The Plan is designed to address barriers to retrofit across four key areas: driving demand and activity; financing and funding; supply chain, skills and standards; and governance. In line with commitments in the Plan, last year, the Government approved a package of significantly enhanced supports to make it easier and more affordable for homeowners to undertake home energy upgrades, which included:
• A new National Home Energy Upgrade Scheme providing increased grant levels of up to 50% of the cost of a typical deep retrofit to a B2 BER standard.
• Establishment of a network of registered One Stop Shops to offer a start-to-finish project management service, including access to financing, for home energy upgrades.
• A significant increase in the number of free energy upgrades provided to those at risk of energy poverty alongside changes to the operation of the Warmer Homes Scheme. This includes ensuring the Scheme prioritises those in the worst performing homes first and opening the Scheme for homeowner ‘revisits’ thereby allowing them apply for deeper energy upgrade measures now available under the scheme.
• A special enhanced grant rate, equivalent to 80% of the typical cost, for attic and cavity wall insulation introduced for all households.
In the period from 2015 to the end of March 2023, the SEAI supported over 182,000 home energy upgrades, of which almost 24,400 were to a post works Building Energy Rating (BER) of B2 or better. This has resulted in warmer, healthier and more comfortable homes that are easier and cheaper to heat and light. It is important to note that homes that do not achieve a BER of B2 will still help Ireland to meet its emissions reductions targets for the residential sector. That is why the target is the equivalent (in carbon terms) of 500,000 homes to a BER B2.
The figures show year-on-year increases of homeowners upgrading their homes to a BER B2 or better, including, more recently, through the services provided by the One Stop Shops under the National Home Energy Upgrade Scheme. However, Government recognise that many households are also carrying out energy upgrades on their homes in a stepwise approach which is bringing them through a pathway towards a B2 home. For this reason, the grants available for relevant measures under the Better Energy Homes Scheme and the Community Energy Grant Scheme have been aligned to the rates available under the National Home Energy Upgrade Scheme.
My Department is working with SEAI to build the required capacity to deliver, on average, approximately 75,000 B2-equivalent home upgrades per year from 2026 to 2030 to achieve the overall target of 500,000 by 2030. A record €356 million in funding has been allocated to SEAI for residential and community schemes for 2023 to support the delivery of 37,000 energy upgrades this year.
A detailed overview of the SEAI 2022 performance against annual targets on the residential and community energy efficiency schemes can be found in their recently published report, which can be found on the SEAI website at: www.seai.ie/news-and-media/home-energy-upgrades-2022/.
The data available to, and provided by, SEAI, in relation to the information sought by the Deputy is provided in the attached table.
SEAI
