Further to my response to Dáil Question No. 689 of 12 May 2026, local authorities are solely responsible for the management and maintenance of their respective social housing stock.
That said, my Department is providing €260 million this year to support the remediation and maintenance of local authority social homes across a range of funding programmes. This includes €140 million under the Energy Efficiency Retrofit Programme, an increase of €50 million on 2025.
The supports provided under the programme, and the works funded, are sufficient to provide high quality, comfortable and energy effective homes for social housing tenants, while achieving a post works BER of 125KWh/m²/yr. and helping us reach the national target of 36,500 social homes retrofitted to this standard by end 2030.
Supported works generally don't include the installation of solar panels. As set out in my previous response, in limited circumstances for local authority owned dwellings with a floor area less than 55m2, and where it is not practical to achieve a Heat Loss Indicator (HLI) specified by the SEAI guidance, installation of at least 1kWp of solar photovoltaic micro-generators on the dwelling with the heat pump is recommended, and is funded as eligible works under the EERP.
Beyond this, the installation of solar panels by local authorities or their tenants, is entirely a matter for those authorities as landlords and responsible authorities for the management of their social housing stock. This includes the identification of funding options that may be available via other public funded programmes, including those supported by the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment, the SEAI and others.
