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250,000 homes upgraded to date through Better Energy schemes
Pictured in Ballyfermot are Energy Minister Pat Rabbitte TD with NABCO contractors Dominic McCrink and John Norris.
Energy Minister Pat Rabbitte today marked the significant milestone of 250,000 homes upgraded in Ireland through the highly successful Better Energy schemes. Free home energy upgrades have been completed in 100,000 homes through Better Energy Warmer Homes Scheme. A further 150,000 homeowners have availed of the popular Better Energy Homes grants for insulation and heating upgrades.
Minister Rabbitte said:
The scale of this achievement is immense, amounting to €600m investment in the small buildings sector and an average of 3,800 full time jobs over the last five years. I am particularly pleased with the inroads our current programmes are making in respect of energy poverty, with more than one quarter of eligible homes addressed to date. This Government has a strong commitment to energy efficiency. We will continue to provide funds for the Better Energy Schemes next year. We recently commenced a separate programme of retrofit investment in the Local Authority housing stock. We have also created a new fund this year to boost activity in terms of public and commercial building energy efficiency initiatives.
A report to be published by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland tomorrow shows the hugely positive impact to the housing stock in Ireland of the successful energy efficiency and retrofitting schemes. These homeowners have already made energy savings of €150m over the past few years, and will continue to save €60m annually.
The Minister further commented:
The significance of reaching this milestone should not be underestimated – retrofitting 250,000 homes out of 1.6m permanently occupied homes is a huge achievement. However, it’s also appropriate to look forward and consider the economic and health benefits that we could realise if the rest of the inefficient housing stock was upgraded. I encourage everyone to ‘get efficient’ and take advantage of the Better Energy grant programmes.
Read the full press release
here.