From Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications
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The Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan, and the Minister of State for Public Health, Colm Burke welcomed today’s publication of the final report on the government's Warmth and Wellbeing pilot scheme.
The research shows that over a three-year period following their energy efficiency upgrade, participants reported fewer GP consultations, fewer emergency room visits and fewer hospital admissions, particularly in relation to respiratory conditions as well as fewer prescriptions for medication.
The pilot helped inform the government’s retrofitting schemes, in particular changes to the Warmer Homes Scheme which now provides more extensive and higher-value upgrades for low-income households. Last year, 60% of the total spend on government retrofit schemes was used to provide completely free upgrades to low income and energy poor homes.
The Warmth and Wellbeing pilot scheme was an interdepartmental and inter-agency project led by Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications with the Department of Health, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) and the Health Service Executive (HSE). The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LHSTM) were recruited to carry out independent analysis of the health impacts.
The project was established to examine how energy efficiency upgrades to homes can improve the health and wellbeing of people living with chronic respiratory conditions. Today's report is the culmination of the extensive work undertaken by all of the agencies involved over the past 8 years.
Minister Ryan said:
"Having this evidence of the direct benefit energy efficiency can have on your health is a tangible demonstration in Ireland of the multiple benefits of energy efficiency and its capacity to improve overall health and living conditions, connecting climate action with improving lives. We have already mainstreamed elements of the pilot into our nationally available Warmer Homes scheme resulting in direct benefits for some of our most vulnerable households. As we have guaranteed funding for this scheme until 2030, we will see the numbers of free retrofits for low income homes increase further.
"The Warmth and Wellbeing project was also a real example of cross-government cooperation, bringing together four separate parts of the public sector and aligning policy objectives. Importantly, the households that participated are now living in homes that are proven to be healthier, warmer, and more comfortable."
Minster of State for Public Health, Colm Burke said:
"This project, which was delivered under the government's Strategy to Combat Energy Poverty and the Healthy Ireland Framework, illustrates how addressing housing quality – one of the social determinants of health – can lead to better health outcomes for individuals and reduce the demand on healthcare resources. It further supports the case for a whole-of-government approach to both health and climate policy in order to achieve sustained improvement for population health."
Participants' health and wellbeing was assessed and tracked by HSE public health officials in Community Healthcare Organisation 7 in Dublin over a three-year period following their energy efficiency upgrade.
The research shows that the installation of home energy efficiency measures through the scheme resulted in beneficial effects for the health of the householders, with evidence of improvement across a range of measures relating to physical and mental health and social wellbeing.
Participants reported fewer GP consultations, fewer emergency room visits and fewer hospital admissions, particularly in relation to respiratory conditions. Drug prescriptions for the participants’ respiratory conditions, as recorded through the Primary Care Reimbursement Service, were also reduced following the energy efficiency upgrades.
The modelling analysis indicates the potential longer-term impacts of energy efficiency upgrades, on mortality and life expectancy. Similar upgrades carried out across a larger group would be expected to lead to net reductions in mortality (and increased life expectancy).
Speaking about the final report on the government's Warmth and Wellbeing pilot scheme, Assistant Professor James Milner at the LSHTM said:
"Until now, there has been very little real-world evidence on the benefits to health of schemes designed to improve housing energy efficiency. We found that improvements to the energy efficiency of these homes in Dublin resulted in clear benefits to both the physical and mental health of residents in the study. Their homes were also warmer over the winter months.
"We’re hopeful that these results can be used as a realistic target for other temperate countries. The urgent need to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions from housing must be a key part of any climate mitigation action.”
Dr Christopher Carroll, HSE Public Health, commented:
"The report on the evaluation of the Warmth and Wellbeing scheme underlines the importance of housing quality as a determinant of health in Ireland. Furthermore, it demonstrates that interventions targeted at addressing housing quality can improve the physical, mental, and social wellbeing of those at risk of energy poverty, along with reducing the usage of healthcare services and inequalities in health. It adds to the existing evidence that health at a population level is affected by the environments in which we live and aligns with the vison of Healthy Ireland where every individual can enjoy health to their full potential."
The HSE Public National Health Lead for Social Inclusion during 2016 to 2022, and Principal Investigator for the research project, Dr Margaret Fitzgerald said:
"It was a great privilege to support this project, especially to provide the key evidence from the research that health outcomes improved for those with chronic respiratory conditions. It was a long and intensive engagement on the part of nurses and administrative support in HSE over an eight-year period which we were happy to support during difficult times of COVID. Positive outcomes were seen not just for patients and carers but also in terms of the reduced burden on health services and reduced care costs. It was a great Public Health initiative."
SEAI provide a number of grant supports for homeowners who want to upgrade the efficiency of their homes for warmer, healthier and more comfortable homes.
SEAI CEO William Walsh welcomed the report:
"This important research by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine substantiates the many health benefits associated with home energy upgrades. The Warmth and Wellbeing Pilot Scheme was initiated to secure the necessary, but previously absent, evidence in an Irish context of the health benefits of retrofitting especially in energy-poor homes. Ireland is a world leader in many areas of the transition to a low-carbon economy, particularly in relation to our approach to retrofitting our existing housing stock. SEAI, as the national retrofit delivery body, has supported the upgrade of over 145,000 homes across every county in Ireland since 2019."
Retrofit schemes like this are also essential in improving air quality, particularly for those at higher risk of health impacts from air pollution. These impacts and the actions to improved air quality were highlighted in Ireland’s first Clean Air Strategy published in 2023. Minister Ryan has submitted the first annual progress report on the strategy this week, which outlined the significant progress made on the key actions to date. The Clean Air Strategy sets out the cross-government framework needed to reduce air pollution and promote cleaner air. This is ultimately about saving lives, making our towns and cities more liveable and improving our environment.
The strategy also recognises the importance of retrofitting as a key driver of air quality improvements given that residential burning is one of the largest contributors to air pollution. The government's ambitious retrofit programme is contributing to better air quality and compliment the new solid fuel regulations introduced in 2022 which are already bearing results. Although it's too early to measure that the exact impact, initial indications from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) point to significant improvements in air quality in many areas where air quality had been negatively impacted by solid fuel burning.
The full Warmth and Wellbeing report is available on the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications website.
ENDS
The Warmth and Wellbeing Scheme was established in 2016 as a joint energy, social and health policy initiative led by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications with the Department of Health, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) and the Health Service Executive (HSE). The aim of the initiative was to improve the living conditions of vulnerable people at risk of energy poverty and living with chronic respiratory conditions. The scheme provided free, extensive energy upgrades to eligible homes making the homes warmer and healthier to live in. The health and wellbeing benefits of energy efficiency are internationally recognised, but this scheme aimed to validate those benefits in an Irish context.
The pilot scheme was established in Community Healthcare Organisation (CHO) 7 (specifically areas of Dublin 8, 10, 12, 22 and 24). The area was selected after careful consideration by all stakeholders and was finally chosen as an area that met the required criteria and had strong support from the CHO's Health and Wellbeing management team for the project concept. The scheme opened to applicants in 2016 and closed in February 2022.
The HSE's public health teams identified people in a pilot area living with respiratory conditions who were at risk of energy poverty. These households were provided with free energy efficiency upgrades to their homes using the SEAI delivery teams.
The last of the homes in the pilot were completed in February 2024. Over the course of the pilot, 1,672 homes were upgraded in total.
The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine were recruited to carry out independent analysis of the health impacts. Participants' health and wellbeing was assessed and tracked over a 3-year period following their upgrade.
For physical health, the positive effects of retrofitting the home included, for example:
For mental health and wellbeing, among other benefits, the evaluation found:
Participants also reported:
This suggests important social benefits of improved home energy efficiency. These effects largely appear to have been maintained over the two-year follow-up period. In the subset of homes that received temperature monitoring, there was clear evidence that home energy efficiency improvements led to increases in winter indoor temperatures.
Last year almost 5,900 fully-funded energy upgrades for low-income households were delivered under the government's Warmer Homes scheme. As well as this a further 776 households at risk of energy poverty living in Approved Housing Body and private homes were supported with upgrades through the Community Energy Grants scheme and National Home Energy Upgrade (One Stop Shop) scheme. Under the Local Authority Energy Efficiency Retrofit Programme an additional 2,445 local authority homes were upgraded. This means that over 9,000 more households at risk of energy poverty are living in warmer, healthier and more comfortable homes this year.
In 2024, a total of €300 million will be spent on providing more fully-funded upgrades through SEAI's dedicated energy poverty schemes and local authority retrofits. This funding will deliver 6,325 free upgrades under the Warmer Homes Scheme and a further 2,400 B2 retrofits of local authority homes this year. This represents over 57% of the Government’s total allocation for residential retrofits.
Separately, enhanced grant rates for energy-poor households and Approved Housing Body homes are also available under the National Home Energy Upgrade Scheme and the Community Energy Grants Scheme.
The government recognises that not all households who need support fall into the above groups, which is why a range of supports are available through SEAI including:
Further information is available on the SEAI website.
The progress shown in this progress report includes:
The high-quality data provided by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on ambient air quality and national emissions is essential; this data provides the evidence base for the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications to closely monitor, evaluate and act on our air pollutant emissions.
At the moment, air pollution in Ireland is estimated to cause 1,300-1,400 premature deaths every year – ten times the number of people who die on our roads. Illnesses impacted or exacerbated by air pollution include stroke, heart disease, lung disease, lung cancer, asthma and dementia. More recent evidence indicates that the health impacts of air pollution are even wider ranging than previously thought, with links to cognitive development and mental health.
Air pollution also has a range of impacts on our environment, including on biodiversity, water quality and wider ecosystems services.
There is an intrinsic link between the actions needed to clean our air and to deliver on climate action as many of the sources of air pollution are also sources of CO2 emissions. The Clean Air Strategy highlights measures to address these overlapping issues, like electrifying our heat systems and improving the energy efficiency of our homes or moving towards more electric vehicles and away from dirty and polluting fossil fuels, for example. The Clean Air Strategy also clearly complements the department's annual Climate Action Plans.