An Post frustrated to be 'outside the tent' on Government retrofitting policy

Just 20 firms etrofitting around 500 homes annually will be registered as one-stop shops for the national energy efficiency programme by the end of this year.

An Post could assist the Government in the scale of the home retrofitting national programme, but remains "outside the tent" of Government policy, senior leadership figures in its organisation have said.

Appearing before the Oireachtas communications committee, An Post retail managing director Debbie Byrne said it was "very frustrating" that it could help the Government to accelerate the retrofitting of homes, but that it is not involved in the process.

An Post's launched its Green Hub in 2020, which it describes as a one-stop shop for homeowners to organise energy upgrades in their home. 

However, the Government's €8bn national retrofit programme, which was announced in February, is being administered through the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). 

The plan aims to carry out 500,000 deep retrofits, or around 30%, of Ireland's housing stock, with different grants. 

The SEAI said in April that just 20 firms retrofitting around 500 homes annually will be registered as one-stop shops for the national energy efficiency programme by the end of this year, despite ambitious targets to do 70,000 homes by 2026.

It will scale up year-on-year to "cruising altitude" around 2026 or 2027, it told TDs and senators when questioned.

At Wednesday's committee hearing, An Post's Ms Byrne told TDs and senators that its Green Hub allows customers to carry out various levels of retrofitting in a simplified process with SSE as a provider, as well as a so-called "green loan" in conjunction with the European Investment Bank — which it said still has the lowest interest rate in the marketplace.

An Post retail managing director Debbie Byrne. Picture: Naoise Culhane

Despite this, An Post has not been invited to the table by Government, she said.

"We'd like to scale that, and have been talking to other providers about coming on [as partners]," she said. 

"The SEAI and Government then came out with their own one-stop shop at the beginning of the year — we've have stand back a bit now and see where we can play.

It's really good example of where we invested a lot of time and energy — we're very close to the consumer, and we're outside the tent on this, which is very frustrating. I think we could help Government accelerate it.

"For me, we are part of Government, but then we are not. I think we can do more in that space. 

"I'd ask the committee that when there are policy things like this happening, that people say: 'What about An Post?'. For the minute, we probably have to reevaluate our strategy in light of that at the moment."

An Post has invested heavily in the digital infrastructure and could be "the front end" of retrofitting, she added.