Nearly 1,400 Cork homes upgraded through energy grant schemes 

Nearly 1,400 homes in Cork were energy upgraded through government grant schemes over the first three months of this year, new figures have shown.

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) recently published details on the 11,910 home energy upgrades across Ireland supported through government-funded grant schemes between January and March.

Nationally, this represents an increase of 2% on the number of upgrades for the same period last year but, in Cork, upgrades rose by 12.6% from 1,235 in 2024 to 1,395 in 2025.

In Cork, there were 328 better energy homes in the first quarter of 2025 compared to 459 in the first quarter of 2024. There was also a slight decrease in the number of community energy grants issued, from 62 in Q1 2024 to 61 in Q1 2025.

Increases

However, there were increases in the number of solar photovoltaics, from 593 in the first three months of 2024 to 813 in the same period this year. The Better Energy Warmer Homes scheme also saw an increase, from 95 in 2024 to 162 this year during the first quarter, while the national Home Energy Upgrade scheme rose from 30 to 31.

Nationally, government expenditure across all schemes reached €76m, up 4% year on year. Of the homes upgraded, 1,350 were energy-poor homes which benefitted from fully-funded energy upgrades.

SEAI continued with further phases of the national marketing and communications campaign to increase awareness of the benefits of home energy upgrades and to encourage uptake and applications.

One Stop Shops

The Better Energy Homes programme was launched to One Stop Shops. There are now 14 One Stop Shops registered, giving them a second pathway, enabling them to support homeowners to upgrade on a step-by-step basis rather than all at once.

Applicants for heat pumps who have a compliant BER on the system can now bypass the technical assessment process, which removes a further barrier to the uptake of heat pumps.