A new €5 million scheme has launched to provide financial support to people who want to upgrade their homes to an 'A' rating on the Building Energy Rating (BER) scale.

The scheme will fund major energy efficiency upgrades to homes and low carbon heating systems. It will be administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).

Minister for Communications, Climate Action & Environment Denis Naughten, said: "The focus of the new scheme that I have announced is on the residential sector. I have secured €5m in grant funding that will be ring-fenced for people who want to bring their home up to an A on the Building Energy Rating scale. To support Ireland's transition from fossil fuels to renewable heating technologies there will be no grants for fossil fuel based systems under this scheme.

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"Deep retrofit is a significant upgrade to bring a home as close as possible to Nearly Zero Energy Building standards. People live in a wide variety of homes across a broad swath of locations and they live in very different circumstances be they homeowners or renters. We need to develop a range of solutions that will work for everyone. Achieving the transition to a low carbon energy system in our existing housing stock is not just an Irish challenge, it is a global one. But we need to develop, from the bottom up, a range of solutions to create the evidence base for what really works in Ireland. Critical as it is to reduce carbon emissions from our residential sector, it is as important to reap the additional benefits that come with making a home low carbon, such as lower energy bills and improved health and comfort."

(CD/LM)