Departmental Schemes
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-30
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Timmy Dooley (FF), Clare

Certainly, the Department could take that up with the SEAI to make sure there is a greater level of connection or communication between those potential beneficiaries. I think the Senator asked how many were on the register. My understanding is that there are about 18,000 in total. The 1,900 figure would represent about 10% of that, if my sums are close, so we still have a bit to go. Not everybody will want solar and not everybody will see it as beneficial, but the Senator has identified a need and has clearly identified the capacity for the scheme to deliver for some. We will make every effort to improve the communication to get as many people into the scheme as possible. As I said, the overall future of the scheme will be looked at in the context of budget 2027. Again, it is too early to establish that, but I think we have seen the benefits of the scheme. Let us hope it can be continued into the future. Even if we get them, we would probably be at 15% with the ones that were done back to 2022. That is a good start, and then we could ramp it up to get all those 18,000, or as many as wanted, onto the scheme.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-30/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:53+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-30