Sinn Féin’s spokesperson for Climate, the Environment and Energy, Pa Daly TD, has accused the government of an "utter failure" to decarbonise home heating at the pace and scale needed, urging ministers to adopt Sinn Féin's retrofitting plan for a fairer approach.

Responding to a new ESRI report, the Kerry TD pointed out that progress on residential decarbonisation is far off course, with deep retrofits and heat pump installations reaching only 11.5% and 3.5% of the 2030 targets by the end of 2024. He noted the government’s goals include retrofitting 500,000 homes to BER B2 or better and installing 400,000 heat pumps by 2030.

Teachta Daly said: "This landmark report from the ESRI is a damning indictment of the government’s record on the decarbonisation of home heating.

"Government set themselves a target to have 500,000 homes retrofitted to a BER B2 or higher by 2030, and furthermore to have 400,000 heat pumps installed.

"As Sinn Féin predicted, the government is nowhere near reaching these targets. In fact, the progress they have made is quite pathetic.

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"By the end of 2024, government had achieved just over one tenth of the 2030 for deep retrofits.

"The picture is even more bleak for heat pumps. Just 3.5% of the 2030 heat pump target has been achieved.

"These figure's tell you everything you need to know about this government’s capacity to deliver on their promises.

"How they can maintain any credibility on decarbonisation after this is beyond me.

"The report also highlights longstanding Sinn Féin criticisms of the government's regressive approach, including significant barriers to access including high up-front costs locking out the majority of low- and middle-income households. Sinn Féin has always insisted that in order to achieve the kind of mass uptake that the 2030 targets require, schemes must be accessible and affordable. Therefore, we have consistently urged the government to adopt our proposals to introduce targeted, area based supports whereby grants are tiered according to income.

"The findings of the report also align with Sinn Féin criticisms of the governments approach, emphasizing the need to focus specifically on oil and solid fuel homes, and to embrace the use of mixed technologies to switch to lower carbon options especially in cases where a deep retrofit is neither accessible nor affordable. Sinn Féin has always said that there should be ring-fenced funding for these households. However, the government ignored that call and continued to act like heat pumps were the only game in town.

"Well the chickens have come to roost as the report confirms just how flawed this strategy really is.

"With this dire progress, it's easy to get despondent and think there is nothing we can do to rapidly improve progress.

"However, there are changes that government can make to turn this ship around. It is not too late. The government must admit they got this badly wrong and urgently implement Sinn Féin's retrofitting proposals."