LAST UPDATE | 8 Feb 2022
THE GOVERNMENT HAS announced plans for a €8 billion scheme aimed at reducing the cost of retrofitting homes to make them more energy-efficient.
The new National Home Energy Upgrade System offers increased grant levels of up to 50% of the cost of a typical deep retrofit to a B2 home energy standard.
The grants can be accessed through the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland. The SEAI website will be updated this evening with further application details after the National Retrofitting Scheme is officially launched.
Grants of as much as around €25,000 will be offered for private homes to cover half the costs of a deep retrofit.
The new grant process for retrofitting is intended to be simplified. Homeowners will be able to contact ‘one stop shop’ organisations that will tackle the retrofit task from start to finish.
This is aimed to remove any hassle or difficulties households have with retrofitting.
Homes owned by private homeowners, non-corporate landlords and Approved Housing Bodies are eligible for the scheme.
Grant supports – under the Better Energy Homes Scheme – for homeowners that want to take a step-by-step approach to upgrading their homes have also been increased.
For instance, the grant for heat pumps has increased from €3,500 to €6,500 and the rate for external wall insulation has increased from €6,000 to €8,000 for a detached house.
An enhanced grant rate, equivalent to 80% of the typical cost, for attic and cavity wall insulation will be made available to all households.
For instance, in the case of a semi-detached home, the attic insulation grant will increase from €400 to €1,300 and the cavity wall insulation grant will increase from €400 to €1,200.
The Warmer Homes Scheme offers free energy upgrades for eligible homeowners who are most at risk of energy poverty. Since 2000, over 143,000 free upgrades have been supported by the scheme.
A budget allocation of €109 million has been provided for this scheme this year.
Environment Minister Eamon Ryan brought a proposal on the National Retrofitting Scheme to Cabinet today and was been given the green light.
Half a million homes will be retrofitted by 2030 under government plans.
Speaking at a press conference this evening, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said: “We have a duty to act collectively and urgently to protect ourselves, to invest in this country’s future, and to ensure that we play our part safeguarding this planet’s climate systems on which we rely.”
Martin said the package of measures announced today “will deliver warmer, healthier and more comfortable homes which will reduce energy bills. It will reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and will improve air quality”.
“The truth is that increased energy efficiency will deliver multiple benefits … it will make us individually and collectively far less vulnerable to volatile energy prices and less dependent on imports from an increasingly unpredictable world,” the Taoiseach said.
He said it “will reduce the cost of living” at a time when many people are feeling the pressure
With reporting by Hayley Halpin
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