Forty-five homes in Donegal will be retrofitted this year following the allocation of €1,220,546 to Donegal County Council.
The funding was announced as part of the Energy Efficiency Retrofitting Programme to make social houses warmer, easier to heat and more comfortable. Retrofitting works will enhance air quality in the home and for those currently using oil or gas they will see savings on energy bills.
Donegal County Council will receive an initial allocation of over €1.2m while a national funding pot of €10million will be allocated to local authorities who demonstrate an ability to complete additional work and spend their full allocation in 2021.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Donegal T.D., Charlie McConalogue welcomed today’s government announcement on allocations and targets.
He said: “The 2021 Energy Efficiency Retrofitting Programme is a newly revised programme designed around the Programme for Government commitment with an important increase in funding support nationally of €65m, €20m of which has been allocated under the midlands retrofit programme.
“This revised programme will see a significant upscaling – from a ‘shallow’ to ‘deeper retrofit’ – on what has been completed by local authorities in previous years and will target 2,400 social homes nationally in total for upgrade works in 2021. For Donegal, the allocation of over €1.2m is much welcomed funding which will retrofit 45 homes in Donegal.”
The Programme for Government 2020 set targets over the next ten years aimed at Ireland’s objective of reducing its carbon emissions by more than half.
Approximately 40% of Ireland’s energy-related carbon emissions come from buildings alone. A target has been set to retrofit over 500,000 homes nationally by 2030. Approximately 36,500 of those will be local authority owned homes.
Donegal Green Party Chair Michael White has welcomed today’s announcement and said:
“It’s tangible evidence of the difference the Green Ministers are making in this government.”