Homeowners will be offered grants of up to €5,600 to retrofit windows and doors as part of a State scheme to encourage the wider installation of heat pumps in Irish homes.
The fixed-amount windows-and-doors grant is expected to be announced by Minister for Energy Darragh O’Brien after Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting. It is anticipated that the grant will then be made available from March 3rd.
Grants for windows and doors were previously only available for homes undergoing deep retrofits, which cost tens of thousands of euro.
However, in a significant policy change, grants will be offered under the Better Energy Homes Scheme for houses and apartments where the fabric of the building is deemed suitable for the installation of a heat pump. Improving the energy efficiency of doors and windows helps to minimise heat loss and allows a heat pump to operate at lower temperatures.
Grants of up to €4,000 will be provided for upgrading windows on detached houses, €3,000 for semidetached and end-of-terrace homes, €1,800 for mid-terrace houses and €1,500 for apartments and duplexes. There will also be grants of €800 per door, up to a maximum of two doors.
A total of €558 million was allocated in Budget 2026 for retrofitting and insulation grants, a record level.
Mr O’Brien is expected to tell Cabinet colleagues that tens of thousands of homes could avail of the grant. The latest measures are part of a drive to make retrofitting more affordable for householders who were not in a position to fund deep retrofits.
Following this week’s Cabinet meeting, Taoiseach Micheál Martin will convene a special meeting of Ministers at Farmleigh House in the Phoenix Park to identify the Government’s priorities for this year.
A year after the Government was formed, Mr Martin is expected to ask each Minister to outline their goals and how they will deliver the key programme for government commitments in their respective areas.
The session, which was organised before Christmas, will also involve taking stock of the performance of the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael Coalition over its first 12 months in office.
The meeting is expected to focus on areas such as housing, infrastructure, competitiveness, economic growth and employment during a period of global uncertainty.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik said on Sunday that Mr Martin should not take part in this year’s shamrock ceremony at the White House with US president Donald Trump.
“I find it hard to see how [Mr Martin] could at this point be presenting shamrock in a ceremony like that, seeing as there is a leader in the US who is threatening military action against European allies,” she told RTÉ’s This Week programme.
