The national retrofit scheme addresses two critical issues for consumers, who do not like the costs and the complexity associated with retrofitting their homes, according to Stephen O'Connor managing director of Electric Ireland Superhomes (EIS).
“Anything that can tackle those barriers is good,” he added, while the enhanced scheme would be welcomed by the construction sector as it provided clarity and certainty.
With multiannual funding becoming the norm, it would end panic and tight deadlines associated with yearly schemes that have operated up to now, he believed.
Rolling out the one-stop-shop option, where house energy surveys, design and paperwork are processed including SEAI grant applications, would make retrofitting a lot more convenient, Mr O’Connor predicted. It would also facilitate “cash fronting the job” instead of householders having to put money upfront and recoup grants later.
It would also drive better regulation as construction companies forming one-stop shops such as EIS have to register and integrate their IT with SEAI systems. While it might lead to a smaller number of larger players, he said, it would ensure a higher standard of work.
Energy analyst Prof Brian Ó Gallachóir of MaREI in UCC said it was critical that Irish climate action was scaled up rapidly by including “ambitious retrofitting as part of a suite of things”.
Having set the second most ambitious short-term emissions reduction target in legislation, sectoral emission ceilings needed to be set in the context of agreeing a five-year carbon budget, he said. This needed to include drastic reduction of emissions in the residential sector; “retrofitting is the key way to do that”, Prof Ó Gallachóir underlined.
This would ensure people live in adequately warm and healthy homes and reduce emissions associated with heating. The scheme “gives a strong signal and will mobilise investment in retrofitting”, he said.
As many people who would be availing of the scheme were likely to be able to afford home upgrades, “this should not draw funds away from people who cannot afford it as it would exacerbate energy poverty”, he warned.
Friends of the Earth energy policy analyst Clare O’Connor said: “Reducing our reliance on fossil fuels by retrofitting homes is a key step in reaching our climate targets, while simultaneously responding to the international gas crisis that’s increasing our energy bills.”
Accelerating the move away from fossil fuels through retrofits had huge potential to bring down energy costs, make homes warmer and healthier, and protect vulnerable households, she added. However, the retrofit scheme “must respond to the key challenges of affordability, energy poverty, protection for tenants and labour shortages”.
