2025-12-10

The warmer homes scheme is supposed to protect the most vulnerable households in our society, including older people, low-income families, people living alone and those wholly dependent on supports like the fuel allowance. Right now the scheme is failing them and it is about to get far worse. I will outline the current reality. On 4 November this year my office contacted the SEAI on behalf of a vulnerable client who applied for the warmer homes scheme in October 2024. Almost 14 months later she is still awaiting a survey or an allocation. The timelines are staggering. It is taking 14 months to get a survey, 26 months for works and another three months for post-works inspection. This is not a functioning scheme. We already have 20,000 homes on the waiting list. The Minister of State knows as well as I do that these are not discretionary upgrades. These are essential measures for people at risk of fuel poverty. The critical point that I want to emphasise is that the number of people on the fuel allowance, the key qualifying criteria for the warmer homes scheme, is expanding dramatically. From next year those on the working family payment will be eligible. That is an additional 50,000 households, bringing the total number of fuel allowance recipients to more than 500,000. If nothing changes, the warmer homes scheme waiting list will surge even further because eligibility will expand faster than delivery capacity. This is not a projected problem; it is an inevitability. The SEAI currently has no action plan, no surge capacity, no backlog reduction strategy and no timeline for clearing the existing 20,000 cases. Money is not an issue but delivery is and telling people that we have increased funding is meaningless if funding does not translate into workers on roofs, contractors on the ground, insulation going into walls and people living in warmer homes. When will a full, published action plan be produced to address the backlog of 20,000 homes? What contingency planning has been done for the additional 50,000 homes that will become eligible under the expanded fuel allowance scheme? Will the Government commit to a maximum six-month waiting time for a survey for any applicant on the fuel allowance? Will the Department intervene directly to ensure that the SEAI increases contractor and surveyor capacity immediately? We cannot keep telling vulnerable people to wait three winters for a warmer home. We cannot expand eligibility by 50,000 households while pretending the scheme can cope as it stands. This requires urgency, action and leadership now, not later.

I thank Deputy Murphy for raising this issue today. The climate action plan includes targets to retrofit the equivalent of 500,000 homes to a building energy rating, BER, of B2, cost optimal, and the installation of 400,000 heat pumps in existing homes to replace older, less efficient heating systems by the end of this decade. The national retrofit plan sets out the Government's approach to achieving those targets. The programme for Government 2025 contains a number of commitments in relation to retrofitting. They include delivering more B2 equivalent home retrofits each year from 2026 to 2030, with a focus on lower-income households, improving the provision of grants and financing models for home owners, including older people who wish to retrofit, enhancing energy efficiency and reducing costs, as well as supporting group retrofitting projects. The warmer homes scheme aims to improve the energy efficiency and warmth of homes owned by people at risk of energy poverty by providing fully funded retrofits. The scheme is operated by the SEAI on behalf of the Department and is funded through carbon tax receipts and the European Regional Development fund, ERDF Last year saw a record spend of almost €230 million under the scheme. As reported by the SEAI, this resulted in 7,743 upgrades being provided to lower-income households. This year's budget includes an allocation of €250 million for the scheme, which is a €50 million increase. That represents an elevenfold increase on the 2020 expenditure figure. The scheme has been delivering a greater number of deeper and more complex upgrades in recent years, and this is reflected in the average cost of upgrades, which the SEAI indicates has increased from €2,600 in 2015 to over €29,000 this year. These deeper upgrades mean that more lower-income households are benefiting significantly from warmer, healthier and more comfortable homes with lower energy bills and reduced emissions. With regard to waiting times, which I know are key to the point the Deputy is making, increased awareness of the multiple benefits of retrofit and improvement to the warmer homes scheme is driving increased levels of demand for the scheme, with just over 45,000 applications received over the period from January 2022 to the end of October 2025. Over the same period, more than 24,500 homes have been upgraded under the scheme. We had 45,000 applications and in the same period, 24,500 homes were upgraded. For homes that have been allocated to a contractor for works under the scheme so far this year, the average waiting time was just under 15 months. Once a home is allocated to a contractor, the completion times can vary based on the types of works being undertaken at a home and the lead time for ordering and delivery of materials and products, such as windows, are factors. Homeowner availability for upgrades in their homes can also be a factor. The average waiting time from application to completion of upgrade works to date in 2025 has been 21 months for the worst performing homes and 22 months for better performing homes. It is important to note that these averages represent a significant reduction since the first half of 2022, when the average waiting time was 27.5 months. The reduction in waiting times follows a range of measures introduced by the Department and the SEAI, including the allocation of additional staff to the warmer homes scheme, a significantly increased budget allocation and active contract engagement with management by the SEAI to increase contractor output, as well as actions to address ongoing supply chain pressures. A pilot delivering additional homes from the warmer homes scheme waiting list under the energy efficiency obligation scheme was introduced last year. Importantly, the SEAI launched on 8 December a procurement process to establish a new €1.2 billion contractor panel to be in place by quarter 2 next year. This will support continued growth, with a focus on scale, quality and output under the scheme. Department officials continue to work with the SEAI to further accelerate and maximise the output of fully funded energy upgrades with the objective of minimising wait times.

I thank the Minister of State for his reply, which alluded to a 21-month waiting time. Correspondence sent to me directly by the SEAI confirmed that the waiting time is somewhere between 24 and 26 months. People came into my office in quarter 3 of 2024 and as of now, 14 months later, the SEAI cannot tell me when these homes will be surveyed. I have people in their 90s who applied in quarter 3 of 2024. They will not be alive when their house is due for a survey. I appreciate the Minister of State's reply, but there is no concrete or time-bound plan. Nothing will change for people who are currently waiting for years for essential upgrades and insulation. I cannot understand why we cannot get the surveys done quicker. Not every house needs a heat pump or a new set of windows. Sometimes houses just need insulation. I cannot understand why we cannot deliver insulation upgrades within six months. The expansion of the fuel allowance to those on the working family payment would see a surge of 50,000 new houses qualifying for the warmer homes scheme. If we expand eligibility without expanding delivery capacity, we will simply deepen frustration, lengthen queues and worsen energy poverty. There are, I say again, 20,000 homes on the waiting list. If nothing changes, these numbers will only go in one direction, which is upwards. I am telling the Minister of State that I will be here again next year and there will be 30,000 homes on the waiting list. It will take 16 or 18 months for a survey. It will take more than three years for full completion of works and vulnerable people cannot wait for three years. We need a backlog reduction task force, emergency procurement of surveyors and contractors and a fast-track system for the elderly and particularly high-risk households. This is about dignity, fairness and the basic right to a warm home. We need timelines, capacity and an action plan or the scheme will continue to fail the very people it was created to protect. People in their 90s who applied in quarter 3 of 2024 will not be alive when their houses are due for a survey.

I will relay the urgency of the need to increase the capacity to the Minister and the Department as a result of this debate. As I indicated in my previous contribution, we have seen a significant increase in the number of applicants. The number has gone from 3,000 homes in 2021 to 13,500 in 2024. There has been a massive increase in the number of applicants, which is obviously putting on pressure by way of demand. It is important that the capacity to deal with that and to deliver on this scheme matches the demand levels and the budget that has been allocated every year, which this year has increased, as I said earlier. The other challenging factor that is influencing waiting time is the fact that deeper retrofits are taking place. That is reflected in the increase in cost from €2,500 ten years ago to €29,000 now. That is reflecting the fact that a lot more is happening whenever a retrofit is taking place. The important piece, which will have a positive influence and will help to address the important point the Deputy is addressing, is the fact that the SEAI has put in place the procurement process for the new warmer homes contractor panel, which commenced in recent months. It is anticipated that it will attract additional capacity for the programme over the next four to five years. That tender carries an estimated value of €1.1 billion, representing a record programme of commitment for that five-year period. The SEAI expects to have the contractor panel in place for quarter 2. Its objective will be to support that continued growth with a focus on the scale, quality and output. The SEAI also continuously monitors the performance of all contractors operating under the warmer homes scheme, including in relation to the quality, level of complaints, timelines and general administration. I will certainly feed back the Deputy's key points to the Minister and the Department. I will emphasise the importance of ensuring that capacity continues to increase.