Better Energy — is the new funding just a sleight of hand?

Launching its Better Energy building upgrade programme earlier this week, the Department of Communications, Energy & Natural Resources said it had committed "an additional €30m towards the programme" for 2011. It added that "capital funding of €60m was allocated for energy efficiency initiatives in Budget 2011". So reading the press pack, you get the impression the previous government allocated €60m, and the current one is now adding €30m to that.

But is this really the case? 

As part of his last budget, former finance minister Brian Lenihan introduced a tax credit scheme — under this, homeowners could claim a tax credit on home energy efficiency works. Lenihan set aside €30m for the scheme for 2011.

But there was no mention of the tax credits as part of the launch of Better Energy, and the scheme does not appear to be open or imminent. Has it been dropped, and if so can the government claim the €30m of additional funding it announced on Wednesday is extra?

What's more, while the Better Energy press pack says "capital funding of €60m was allocated for energy efficiency initiatives in Budget 2011", the figure in the budget actually appears to be €69m. The €60m figure may be a typo, but if not it means that a total of €99m originally set aside for this year has now become €90m.

We hope to have a reply from the department to clarify things shortly.