What is a BER certificate in Ireland?

A Building Energy Rating (BER) certificate is a standardised assessment of a home's energy efficiency, issued by a SEAI-registered assessor. It rates homes on a scale from A1 (most efficient) to G (least efficient) based on insulation, heating system, ventilation, and renewable energy installations. A BER certificate is legally required when selling or renting a property in Ireland. The rating affects the home's energy costs, carbon emissions, and — increasingly — its market value and mortgage eligibility.

How does the SEAI retrofit scheme work in Ireland?

SEAI (Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland) administers several residential retrofit schemes. The Better Energy Homes scheme offers grants for insulation, heating upgrades, and solar PV to homeowners. The Warmer Homes scheme provides free upgrades to households receiving qualifying social welfare payments. The National Home Energy Upgrade Scheme (One Stop Shops) offers a fully managed deep retrofit service. In 2024, over 90,000 SEAI-supported upgrades were completed nationally — but uptake is not evenly distributed. Counties with the highest energy need do not consistently receive the highest retrofit rates.

Does BER rating affect house prices in Ireland?

Yes — research from the ESRI and others has found that higher BER ratings are associated with higher sale prices in Ireland, with an A-rated home typically commanding a premium over a D or E-rated equivalent. The premium has grown as energy costs rose and as lenders increasingly factor BER into mortgage valuations under green mortgage products. A BER certificate is also required for the Help to Buy scheme and may affect qualifying loan amounts under green mortgage products offered by Irish lenders.

What percentage of Irish homes are energy-poor (E–G BER)?

According to CSO EBA02 data for 2024, approximately 11.8% of certified Irish homes are rated E–G. However, the certified stock represents only about 5% of all Irish homes — largely homes sold or rented in recent years. The uncertified stock (predominantly older, rural, owner-occupied) is widely considered to have a worse energy profile. The SEAI estimates that over 500,000 Irish homes are in energy poverty, broadly consistent with the E–G category representing around a quarter of the total stock once coverage gaps are accounted for.

What grants are available for home energy upgrades in Ireland?

SEAI offers several grant schemes for home energy upgrades in Ireland. Better Energy Homes grants cover attic insulation (up to €1,500), wall insulation (up to €8,000 for external), heat pumps (up to €6,500), and solar PV (up to €2,400). The Warmer Homes scheme provides entirely free upgrades for households on qualifying social welfare payments. The National Home Energy Upgrade Scheme (One Stop Shops) provides a managed deep retrofit service with grants covering up to 50% of costs. All grant applications go through SEAI at seai.ie.

BER Ratings Ireland · SEAI / CSO EBA02 · 2024

BER ratings in Ireland — energy efficiency by county

Name: Ireland BER County Data — CSO EBA02 2024
Creator: IrelandInsights
License: https://www.cso.ie/en/statistics/energy/domesticbuildingenergyratings/

Niall Thomas · 7 min read

Ireland's retrofit programme has run since 2011 and reached over 90,000 homes in 2024 alone. Rural Connacht and Ulster need it most — up to 18% of assessed homes there carry an E, F, or G rating. Yet these counties get upgrades at roughly the same rate as Dublin commuter counties, where housing stock is largely new-build. The correlation between a county's energy need and its retrofit investment is 0.07: statistically zero. The data is below.

National headline — BER 2024

National avg E–G

11.8%

Of BER-certified homes

National avg A–B

52.7%

Of BER-certified homes

Certified homes

105,297

In assessed stock, 2024

Coverage

~5%

Of national housing stock

BER data covers the certified stock only — about 5% of Irish homes have a BER certificate. The uncertified 95% tends to be older, rural, and owner-occupied, and likely scores worse. Read county figures as a guide to the assessed stock, not the full housing stock.

% of homes rated E–G, by county Switch to A–B share → Switch to retrofit rate →

Is retrofit reaching the right homes?

The correlation between a county's BER E–G share and its SEAI retrofit rate is 0.07 — statistically near zero. Retrofit uptake does not concentrate in areas with the highest energy need. Demand-led schemes (Better Energy Homes, Solar PV) favour counties where households have higher disposable income to co-fund works.

The Warmer Homes scheme gives free upgrades to low-income households and partly corrects this skew. Western rural counties — Kerry, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo — show above-median retrofit rates despite high E–G shares. But Cork, Donegal, Monaghan, and Clare still show need well above their retrofit uptake. Switch between the E–G and retrofit rate layers on the map above to see the gap clearly.

The correlation between retrofit rate and energy need, county by county, is 0.07 — the programme is not systematically reaching the homes that need it most.

Counties with the highest share of E–G rated homes

Mayo, Roscommon, Leitrim, and Donegal lead nationally on E–G share. These counties have a high concentration of older rural housing built before modern insulation standards. Each records an E–G share above 15% in the certified stock.

County	% E–G rated	A–B share
1. Roscommon	17.7%	42.2% A–B
2. Mayo	17.6%	40% A–B
3. Leitrim	17.4%	42.5% A–B
4. Donegal	15.8%	39.7% A–B
5. Longford	15.3%	45.6% A–B
6. Tipperary	14.5%	48.7% A–B
7. Monaghan	13.7%	53% A–B
8. Offaly	13.4%	50.6% A–B
9. Kerry	12.6%	50% A–B
10. Sligo	12.6%	48.4% A–B

View E–G map for all counties →

Counties with the highest share of A–B rated homes

The Dublin commuter belt — Meath, Kildare, Wicklow, and Louth — leads on A–B share. High new-build activity since 2010 drives this: post-2015 construction must meet Part L energy standards, and these counties built at scale. Each records an A–B share above 60%.

County	% A–B rated
1. Meath	64.8%
2. Kildare	62.8%
3. Laois	61.6%
4. Dublin	61.4%
5. Louth	61.3%
6. Wicklow	58.9%
7. Kilkenny	57.8%
8. Cork	56.5%
9. Carlow	55.6%
10. Wexford	53.9%

View A–B share map →

SEAI retrofit uptake by county — 2024

This table counts SEAI-supported residential upgrades completed in 2024 across all schemes — Better Energy Homes, Warmer Homes, Solar PV, and the National Home Energy Upgrade Scheme. The rate uses Census 2022 household counts per 1,000 households, so small counties are not penalised by raw volume.

County	Upgrades per 1,000 households
1. Galway	40.5/1,000
2. Wexford	36.6/1,000
3. Roscommon	36.3/1,000
4. Meath	35/1,000
5. Carlow	34.4/1,000
6. Mayo	34.2/1,000
7. Sligo	33.8/1,000
8. Tipperary	32.7/1,000
9. Wicklow	32.2/1,000
10. Leitrim	32/1,000

View retrofit rate map →

Why do western counties have more energy-poor homes?

The high E–G share in Connacht and Ulster comes down to age and construction type. Much of the rural western stock went up between 1940 and 1980 using cavity or single-skin masonry with little or no insulation — the standard of the period. These homes cost more to retrofit than newer builds and take more work to upgrade structurally.

Income compounds the problem. The correlation between county household income and BER E–G share is −0.82, the strongest signal in the energy dataset. Lower-income counties have more energy-poor housing partly because older rural stock concentrates there. Higher-income households also assess and retrofit more often — which skews the certified sample toward more efficient ratings.

What is a BER certificate?

A Building Energy Rating (BER) certificate measures a home's energy performance. A SEAI-registered assessor issues it and rates the home from A1 (most efficient, lowest energy cost) to G (least efficient, highest energy cost). Irish law requires a BER certificate when selling or renting a property.

A1–B3 (efficient): well-insulated, modern heating systems, often new-build or recently retrofitted. Annual energy costs typically below €900.
C1–D2 (average): partial insulation, older heating. Most Irish homes assessed to date fall in this range. Energy costs €1,200–€2,500/year.
E–G (energy-poor): poor insulation, oil or solid fuel heating, pre-1980 construction dominant. Annual energy costs can exceed €3,500. SEAI retrofit schemes target these homes first.

BER data — coverage and limitations

Certified stock only: about 5% of Irish homes have a BER certificate. The uncertified 95% likely has a worse energy profile on average — so national E–G percentages understate the true scale of energy poverty.
Dublin outlier: Dublin has a coverage rate of about 2% — well below the national average of 5%. The city has a large owner-occupied stock that assessors only rate on sale or rental. Dublin's BER figures reflect its transactional and new-build stock, not its full housing stock.
Certificate date, not construction date: a home certified after a retrofit gets its post-upgrade rating. The BER data shows the current state of the assessed stock, not the original construction quality.
Annual update: CSO publishes updated BER counts quarterly. IrelandInsights refreshes from CSO EBA02 at server startup and caches the result.

Clare, Donegal, Monaghan, and Tipperary show the clearest gap between energy need and retrofit investment. Switch between the E–G and retrofit rate layers on the map above to see this directly. If the Warmer Homes scheme scales to meet its targets, the gap should narrow over the next two reporting years.

Explore BER and retrofit data on the map

Switch between E–G share, A–B share, and retrofit rate per 1,000 households to see where the efficiency gap is largest — and where upgrade activity is highest.

BER E–G share map BER A–B share map Retrofit rate map Dublin BER Mayo BER

Explore BER data by county

Each county profile shows BER band distribution, retrofit uptake, vacancy rates, tenure, and market prices.

Dublin Cork Galway Limerick Waterford Meath Kildare Wicklow Louth Wexford Kilkenny Tipperary Clare Kerry Mayo Roscommon Sligo Donegal Cavan Monaghan Leitrim Offaly Westmeath Longford Laois Carlow

← Housing crisis by area · Empty homes in Ireland → · Home ownership →

BER data: CSO PxStat EBA02 · Domestic Building Energy Ratings · 2024 · cso.ie/ber
Retrofit data: SEAI National Retrofit Plan Full Year Report 2024 · seai.ie/retrofit
Denominator: CSO Census 2022 household counts