20. Deputy James O'Connor asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment if he has considered the allocations for retrofitting grants for commercial buildings from 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44611/26]

My Department supports businesses in becoming more energy-efficient through schemes administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). Supports that assist these sectors in increasing their energy efficiency and lowering their carbon emissions.

In 2025, SEAI business supports provided grant support of over €47 million to over 4,000 businesses significantly supporting energy cost reduction, competitiveness, and emissions reductions.

The Excellence in Energy Efficient Design (EXEED) (Allocation for 2025: €5m) Scheme provides capital grants to support organisations (business and public sector) for projects which are following the EXEED Certified Standard for Excellence in Energy Efficient Design. The expected benefits are:

• supporting the delivery of 1000 GWh of final energy savings;

• supporting the delivery of 150kt of carbon emission reductions;

• significantly scaling up the level of grant support provided to large companies (€130m from 2026 to 2030); and

• a substantially improved SEAI large business grant offering, supporting the sector with energy costs and their sustainable energy goals.

The Support Scheme for Energy Audits (SSEA) (Allocation for 2025: €3.8m) provides support to cover the costs of a typical energy audit. The scheme provides support for SMEs to carry out energy audits, encouraging them to implement the energy saving measures identified. It is open to all public and private sector organisations that are not already required to carry out an energy audit under the Energy Efficiency Directive. The first step is to avail of the Support Scheme SSEA. Once they have their audit and recommendations, they can avail of the Design Assistance Measure within BEUS to assist with the costs of the design.

The Business Energy Upgrades Scheme (BEUS) (Allocation for 2025: €5m) launched in April 2025. This scheme can provide substantial support to the SME sector to address energy costs and reduce emissions in their buildings. This scheme is open to all businesses, public sectors bodies, societies and charities who are upgrading a building they own or occupy. It offers access to rapid approval of grant funding for a range of retrofit measures for commercial buildings such as hotels, offices, retail premises and restaurants.

The BEUS is managed by the SEAI and has been designed for greater accessibility to support small and medium enterprises in Ireland. The variety of measures and the streamlined application process, allows businesses to take charge of their sustainability journey. Businesses of all shapes and sizes can map their path to decarbonisation with potentially fifteen different steps. Following extensive engagement, the new business energy upgrades grants are designed to minimise the barriers to accessing supports as businesses move towards full decarbonisation.

The BEUS is critical to supporting a higher rate of commercial building retrofit and is expected to double the number of commercial building retrofits and heat pumps supported from 2025 to 2026.

The Non-Domestic Microgen Scheme (Allocation for 2025: €18m) provides financial assistance to help businesses and other sectors to install solar PV panels to generate electricity on site. Grants are available for systems up to a maximum of €162,600 for installations of up to 1000kWp.

The Support Scheme for Renewable Heat (SSRH) is designed to financially support the installation and/or operation of renewable heating systems by commercial, industrial, agricultural, district heating and other non-domestic heat users. It aims to bridge the gap, using an operational tariff over a 15 year payment cycle, between the operating costs of biomass heating systems and the conventional fossil fuel alternatives.

The scheme also provides, for alternative technologies, investment-aid (in the form of grants) providing the necessary incentive for capital investment. The grant will support up to 40% of the eligible project costs, up to a maximum of €1m. Current beneficiaries of the schemes include agri-based businesses, hotels/guesthouses, leisure centres, schools and educational facilities.