Author: Tadhg Wilson

  • New €2,000 energy grant still leaves homeowners facing costs

    New €2,000 energy grant still leaves homeowners facing costs

    A new €2,000 Government grant for homeowners replacing fossil-fuel heating systems with heat pumps has come into effect, but the cost of a full retrofit could still leave some households facing significant bills.

    The boiler scrappage grant became available as part of a wider package of changes to the Government’s home energy supports, aimed at reducing household energy costs and encouraging homeowners to move away from fossil-fuel heating.

    Eligible homeowners replacing an oil, gas, electric storage or solid-fuel heating system with an energy-efficient heat pump can receive an additional €2,000 towards the cost of the upgrade.

    The new payment is added to existing Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland (SEAI) supports. Homeowners can receive up to €10,500 towards a heat pump system, with a further €2,000 available for central heating upgrades where required. Combined with the new boiler scrappage grant, this brings the maximum available support for many houses to €14,500.

    However, the maximum grant does not mean every homeowner will receive €14,500. SEAI states that grant payments cannot exceed the total cost of eligible works, while the overall cost of installing a heat pump can vary significantly depending on the property and the work required.

    Neil McCabe from DECARB Contracts, a retrofitter and consultancy, said the heat pump itself is not necessarily the most expensive part of the process. The cost can instead be driven by the work needed to adapt a house to the new heating system, including pipework and underfloor heating.

    McCabe said the cost of a heat-pump retrofit can be around €20,000 before grants, although this can vary substantially between properties.

    Speaking on the current cost of upgrading McCabe said these new grants wouldn’t be enough to influence homeowners. “If a house is already going to be done up, this is enough to influence, but otherwise no.”

    The Government estimates that replacing a fossil-fuel heating system with a heat pump could result in energy savings of up to €185 a year.

    The wider package also includes increased support for solar PV, battery storage and insulation. The Government estimates that households could save up to €878 a year depending on the measures installed and the property.

    McCabe expects the new grants to increase demand for heat-pump installations, but said increased competition between suppliers should limit any rise in prices.

    “There are so many different suppliers that costing needs to stay competitive,” he said. “Everyone wants to offer a great price.”

    He said the new grants were “going in the right direction”, but argued that more support may be needed as the cost of materials and building work continues to rise.

    For homeowners who are not already planning a major retrofit, the remaining cost can still be a significant consideration.

    Brigid Doyle, a homeowner in Kildare, said she currently has solar panels which are serviced alongside her boiler.

    “I have solar panels… I get them serviced alongside my boiler, I don’t know if that is covered if I upgrade,” she said.

    Doyle also said she was not convinced that the remaining upfront cost after grants made upgrading to a heat pump attractive.

    Her concerns highlight some of the practical and financial considerations facing homeowners beyond the headline value of the new grant, including ongoing servicing arrangements and the cost of replacing a functioning heating system.

    The changes come as demand for home energy upgrades continues to rise. SEAI says more than 100,000 applications have been processed through its schemes since the beginning of 2026, with applications for some supports more than doubling compared with the previous year.

    More than 287,000 home energy improvements, including measures such as insulation, solar and heating upgrades, have been supported through SEAI schemes since 2019.

    The Government has presented the new measures as a way of helping households reduce energy bills while improving Ireland’s energy security. The package was developed through the National Energy Affordability Taskforce.

    However, the experience of homeowners and installers suggests the €2,000 boiler scrappage payment may only address part of the financial barrier to switching from fossil-fuel heating.

    With the new supports now available, homeowners considering a heat pump will still have to weigh the available grant against the cost of the wider retrofit and any additional work required.

    SEAI was contacted for comment on the new grant, the expected uptake and the costs facing homeowners, but has not responded.

  • The road home

    The road home

    “Life is an adventure and you need to be an amateur, not a professional”

    Alasdair Verschoyle is a South African migrant, Irish historian and bookseller whose life has taken him from Cape Town to Kildare, and into the pages of Ireland’s past.

    A smoky barbecue in a sunny Kildare back garden, paired with some whiskey and music. That’s Alasdair Verschoyle, to a tee.

    At 73, he is a long way from Cape Town, coming to Ireland back in 2000. Growing up with an Irish father and English mother, it seemed fitting he would eventually be back. He was raised in a predominantly British part of Cape Town. He noticed from an early age the differences between him and the Afrikaners, and it was when he first started noticing the societal struggles of apartheid.

    “From an early time on I was very aware of apartheid, Nelson Mandela was already being arrested… I grew up with a strange feeling about identity and conflict.”

     

    Among Books

    Verschoyle’s parents emigrated to South Africa in the 1930s. His father was Irish and his English mother also had Irish ancestry.

    Verschoyle’s early life was not easy. His parents separated when he was 15, and by 16 he had already left school. He entered the printing trade, where he started to become immersed in the world of literature.

    His mother passed away when he was 17, leaving him to navigate adulthood at a young age. It was through work, rather than school, that he began to find his direction. 

    He eventually secured a position at a publishing house, expanding his experience beyond the shop floor. Working with both imported and locally produced books exposed him to a wide range of writing and ideas.

    For Alasdair, the book trade evolved from his career into a way for him to understand the world beyond the one he had grown up in.

    By the 1980s, Verschoyle was becoming more and more politically active. His experiences had given him a strong interest in racial equality and the possibility of a freer society. He began to see the country around him more critically, and the injustices of apartheid became increasingly difficult to separate from everyday life.

    “South Africa gave me a foundation for wanting to see equality of races and a freer society, where people aren’t living in fear for their lives.”

     

    The pull of Ireland

    Although Verschoyle’s professional life was firmly rooted in South Africa, Ireland was never entirely absent.

    His father was passionate about history, genealogy and archaeology. In 1960, while still living in Cape Town, he became president of the Donegal Historical Society. It was at this time that Alasdair and his father went on a trip to Ireland, whose interests already had a lasting effect on Alasdair.

    The books in his father’s office became an inheritance in more ways than one. They helped introduce him to Ireland’s past and encouraged a curiosity that would eventually become central to his own work.

    During the 1990s, he visited Ireland every year. Each visit strengthened the connection, until he finally made the decision to move in 2000 with his wife and two children. Before leaving South Africa, he had reached the top of the publishing world and was ready to leave the book trade behind.

    But Ireland had other plans.

    “On landing I got a job instantly in the book world. I was quite happy to leave the book world, but I ended up being an agent for numerous British publishers in Ireland.”

    Loss, family and the meaning of home

    For all the professional milestones, Verschoyle’s idea of success has changed over time.

    Reaching the upper levels of publishing in South Africa was a significant achievement for him, but he places his family alongside, and perhaps beyond, those career accomplishments.

    He now has six grandchildren, and his life is centred around the Naas and Dublin area, where much of his family lives.

    Donegal remains particularly close to him. He describes it as his wonderland, a place where historical research can lead him down one rabbit hole after another. If it were solely his decision, he says, he would live there. The practical reality, however, is that the rest of his family is based further south.

    “When I first went there in 1960, Donegal became something else for me. I love Donegal with all my heart. The only reason I am not there is because all my family is up here, but at the drop of I would go down there and maybe that will still happen one day.”

    That tension between the place he loves and the place where his family lives has led him to reflect on what it means to belong somewhere.

    For Verschoyle, home is not necessarily a straightforward question of birthplace or nationality. His life has taken him across continents, through different cultures and into a country that was familiar through ancestry long before it became his home.

    He is now planning to explore the idea of a “home place” in a book of his own.

    “The journey home is not an end point, nor did it have a beginning point, it’s on the road as you live. That’s the real challenge.”

    Looking towards the next generation

    Verschoyle’s outlook on the future is informed by the political and social changes he witnessed in South Africa, as well as his experiences since coming to Ireland.

    He believes that the world has always experienced periods of upheaval, and that society moves in cycles. But his response is not to retreat from society. Instead, he advocates for people to come together in smaller groups, nurture friendships, practise tolerance and take responsibility for how they treat one another.

    He believes strongly in the potential of younger generations. Mentoring young people is something he particularly enjoys, and he remains optimistic that society can improve.

    His advice is grounded in the everyday: work hard at maintaining friendships, be tolerant of others and find joy in the people around you.

    He has seen how social structures can separate people, and his response has been to emphasise the relationships that bring them together.

     

    A history still being written

    Verschoyle’s connection to Donegal remains a constant in his life. His father’s humour, their conversations and his father’s love of Irish history all contributed to the pull he eventually felt towards Ireland.

    That connection continues through his research and writing. The past isn’t something to be recorded, but something to be explored, questioned and understood.

    Born and raised in South Africa, with Irish ancestry and a family life established in Ireland, he does not fit neatly into a single place or category.

    Instead, his life has been shaped by the movement between them.

    At 73, he continues to look forward, whether through his writing, his historical research or the time he spends with his family. The questions that have followed him from Cape Town to Kildare, about belonging, equality and what makes a place home, remain unresolved in the most productive sense.

    For Verschoyle, perhaps, that is part of the appeal. The fact that there is always another story to uncover.