Ireland is nowhere near meeting its retrofit targets, a new report has warned. Ireland’s Climate Action Plan targets 500,000 residential retrofits and the deployment of 400,000 heat pumps, plus the delivery of up to 2.7 terawatt hours of district heating capacity by 2030. “Linear projections based on post-pandemic trends imply that even continued acceleration leaves substantial shortfalls by 2030, with district heating similarly unlikely to meet targets,” it said. “In the context of an acute housing shortage, and with delivery of new housing units falling short of recent targets, there is an immediate trade-off between upgrading existing homes to meet retrofit goals and building new homes to meet housing demand,” it said. “This review synthesises the empirical evidence on residential heat decarbonisation progress and challenges in Ireland,” Muireann Lynch of the ESRI said.

Source: The Irish Times March 10, 2026 14:31 UTC