The Climate Action Plan 2025 includes an action to progress the implementation and governance of the public sector building stock decarbonisation roadmap, to guide progress towards the 2030 targets.
Decarbonisation is a fundamental objective in all public sector capital investment programmes overseen by my Department. All capital expenditure proposals take climate impact into account prior to progression.
As the deputy is aware, my Department supports the Further Education and Training (FET) sector with a Green Devolved Capital Grant, via SOLAS, with an annual fund of c. €8m for three years, to directly invest in works to support energy efficiency and emissions reduction initiatives for their buildings.
This funding will enable Education and Training Boards (ETBs) to continue to implement energy and emissions reduction measures, reduce their carbon footprint and comply with the Public Sector Climate Action Mandate. It will facilitate ETBs to develop small scale but high impact measures, such as energy audits and controls, energy upgrades and decarbonisation measures. Initiatives that will be considered include low-energy lighting, insulation upgrades, replacement of fossil fuel heating systems with renewable heating technology.
In additional to the financial, compliance, usage and reporting requirements for the grant, ETBs will be required to report on energy usage and carbon reduction for measures funded. This approach will enhance the evidence base, leading to a refined selection of cost-effective high impact measures that can be shared as best practice across the sector. The first mid-term report from SOLAS and the ETB sector on the Green Devolved Capital Grant is due Q3 2026.
Please see attached the breakdown of Green Devolved Funding made available to the ETB sector in 2025.
2025 FET Green Devolved Capital Allocation
