There are just two building companies registered to cope with the Government's ambitious plans of retrofitting 500,000 homes up to a B2 energy efficiency standard by 2030, it has emerged.
However, there are a further raft of companies training staff to bring the number in the programme up to 20.
As well as the hundreds of thousands of energy-rating upgrades, the plan is to install 400,000 heat pumps to replace older, less efficient heating systems.
A network of 'one-stop shop' building firms is planned to make it easier and more affordable for homeowners undertake those home energy upgrades.
But Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland chief executive William Walsh has revealed only two companies are registered so far.
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Sinn Féin spokesman on climate action Darren O'Rourke said last night that the Government needs to move to extend fuel grants to those at risk of fuel poverty due to the slow pace of the rollout.
He said there was a commitment in February that "the backlog on the Warmer Homes Scheme would be dealt with this year and next, and they would ramp up to 400 warm home retrofits monthly".
However, he said that in "January, February and March only 865 were done, which is short of the 400 a month". Mr O'Rouke said the Government needs to increase the Warmer Homes Scheme, which provides home energy upgrades to homeowners on low incomes for things such as insulation and lagging jackets.
"You have a scheme that is going to potentially leave many people in cold homes with increasing fuel costs for a number of years yet, so that's a real concern," he said.
"At the same time, people who have means and are already in warmer homes will be able to get state subsidies."
And quantity surveyor Patricia Power said the work on homes needed is "not simple, it's not straightforward".
She said: "To go in and retrofit somebody's home can be anything from four weeks up to three months depending on the extent. So it's not a quick turnaround."
Ms Power added: "The targets set are very optimistic. If you work it out, we've eight years left - that is 60,000 homes per year."
She said that "we've only two companies registered", and with others in the pipeline, "that's 20 companies throughout Ireland". "How are they going through 60,000 houses per year? This is being brought into a market that is already stretched at its limit."
Social Democrats TD and climate spokeswoman Jennifer Whitmore, who has just completed a retrofit on her own home, told RTÉ yesterday: "Even prior to the announcement of this retrofitting programme, Government has never met its targets that it set when it comes to retrofitting.
"We're two years into this Dáil term and we're still progressing very slowly in a programme where we need to be absolutely throwing everything at it to make sure that we protect households from high energy costs and protect our environment." She said that her own retrofit "took a long time" and added: "We just did it privately ourselves. It was really difficult to get people to do this work."
There is also the problem that builders are having difficulties getting their hands on the materials that they need.
Deputy Whitmore said: "We really don't have the time at this stage to afford not to meet the targets and we need to make sure that everything that needs to be done is being done to ensure those targets are being met."
Currently, 17% of homes in the country are in or are at risk of fuel poverty, and Deputy Whitmore added: "We can see those people really struggling at the moment with high energy costs."
