Cllr calls for oil boiler grant for rural households
Sinn Féin councillor for Claremorris-Swinford, Gerry Murray, has called for the government to amend the individual home energy upgrade grants to include oil boilers and solid fuel appliances.
Murray told Agriland that the government made changes to the grant system in December 2024, which came into effect at the beginning of 2025.
The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) administer grants, which fall under three general schemes: the Better Energy Home scheme; the Better Energy Warmer Homes scheme; and the National Home Energy Upgrade scheme.
Murray said: 'If you are an old-age pensioner, up to December 2024, if you needed to replace an oil boiler or a solid fuel appliance, you would get a grant from the council, courtesy of the government, to do so.
'If it was an oil boiler, the grant would cover the cost of the boiler and the works. In December, the government decided to pull the plug on the grant for new boilers.
'Remarkably, they left a grant for anyone who needs to do repairs. In the case of an oil boiler, the cost of repairs would be well in excess of the cost of a new one – some of them are 25 years old.'
The Warmer Homes scheme provides free home energy upgrades to homeowners who get certain social welfare payments, with the oldest and least energy efficient homes prioritised.
Since January 1, 2025, the scheme does not cover a new fossil fuel boiler, such as an oil or gas boiler. However, it will cover renewable heating systems such as a heat pump.
If a home was surveyed for the scheme before that date and a new fossil fuel boiler was recommended, it will still be covered.
However, if an application was made before January 1, 2025, but the home was not surveyed before this date, the replacement fossil fuel boiler will not be covered.
Oil boilers
Murray believes the government need to reintroduce the grants for oil burners.
'If you're 75, 76, you're not going to try and get your house insulated and get the energy rating higher. When you're that age, you want the minimum disruption in your life, you don't want tradesmen coming in disrupting you,' he said.
'All of these ideas are grand, but people in the later stages of their lives don't want to make the investment. All they're doing is improving the asset for the person who comes along and buys it, subject to you having the means to do so.'
'A lot of pensioners in my area would have retired off marginal holdings of land. They're out in the countryside, their sons and daughters are basically doing the farming now, or they may have retired completely from farming. We all know that the income from farming is marginal at the best of times,' he added.
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