Just two companies have completed due diligence and are currently "fully registered" to deliver all aspects of the recently announced national retrofit programme, an Oireachtas committee has heard.
The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland has said this number will rise to four next week, when their names will be made available.
By the end of the year there will be 21 such 'one stop shops', the SEAI told the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action.
The SEAI is in charge of the €8 billion home insulation package, which funds homeowners for up to half the cost of retrofitting their property.
The names of four firms will be posted on the SEAI's website "mid-way through next week", Ciaran Byrne, Director of National Retrofit at SEAI, said.
He added that posting the names of the two firms currently approved could see them swamped, due to the high level of interest in the programme.
An additional 17 companies are now "actively engaged" in the process of becoming 'one stop shops', SEAI chief executive William Walsh said.
He added that he wants to see the process "expedited" for those companies not yet approved, but who are already lining up customers.
"Delivery at pace is important," Mr Walsh emphasised.
"It's pretty much broadly in line with what we expected," Ciaran Byrne said when asked if he was happy with progress to date.
"We're about where we need to be. Obviously we'd like to be a little bit quicker," he added.
Many of the companies applying already "have a national footprint" and many "are linked to utility providers," Mr Byrne said.
Brian O'Mahony, Head of National Retrofit and Communities, said that by the end of the year the SEAI aims to have 21 'one stop shops' operating.
Progress to date gives "comfort that we will achieve that easily" and so be able to meet the demand that is there, he said.
Mr Walsh noted the impact that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is having, and said that the SEAI is working "to mitigate impacts which will affect all of society".
Ciaran Byrne agreed and said that the war has "really supercharged things" and it has created a "before and after" scenario.
The environment, including the rising cost of materials, is now "moving really, really fast", he told Jennifer Whitmore.
The Social Democrats TD revealed that she has "recently been through the retrofitting process", found it very difficult to get workers or materials, and expressed concern that this might make it more difficult to hit retrofitting targets.
Mr Byrne said that 865 homes were retrofitted in Q1 this year, and that the target of 400 homes a month will be reached "in the next two months".
The retrofit programme runs until the end of the decade.
Mr Walsh said that its implementation will see the seven million tonnes of CO2 emitted by the residential sector in 2018 roughly halved by 2030.
And he said that the findings of the the latest IPCC report are "alarming".
There "will be ample opportunity" for smaller contractors to partner with bigger companies to provide specific services, he said, adding that this is a practice that "is already happening extensively in the industry".
Mr Byrne pointed out that this will ensure that local contractors can participate in the programme.
He added that "the low interest loan will be very significant" in encouraging people to sign up, and said that it will be available later this year.
Committee Chair Brian Leddin, Green Party, noted that even those people with money saved will likely wait for those loans to become available.
Mr Byrne noted that the funding is available to "non-commercial landlords".
"Many of the works can be carried out with the residents living in situ", Mr O'Mahony told Independent Senator Alice-Mary Higgins.
The senator had expressed concern over tenants facing possible eviction as a result of works being undertaken.
Paul Murphy, Solidarity-PBP, said that there is "very little here for private renters", and agreed that the programme may lead to evictions, or higher rents.
