Boilers in Dublin: RGI checks, gas, grants and installers

Quick answer: Dublin is Ireland’s gas city: Census 2022 found 60.3% of Dublin City households heat mainly with natural gas and only 4.4% with oil. Any gas boiler work must be done by a Registered Gas Installer who gives you a Declaration of Conformance certificate. There is no grant for a new gas boiler, but a heat pump can attract up to €12,500 from SEAI, plus a new €2,000 scrappage grant from early 2027.

If you live in a Dublin terrace, semi or apartment, the chances are your heating runs on mains gas. That shapes almost every decision: the installer you need is an RGI, the usual job is a combi or system boiler swap, and the grant question is whether a heat pump makes sense instead. This guide covers what is specific to Dublin.

How Dublin homes are heated

The Central Statistics Office publishes Census 2022 central heating data by local authority. For the Dublin City Council area:

Main central heating fuel, Census 2022	Dublin City	Ireland
Oil	4.4%	38.9%
Natural gas	60.3%	32.7%
Electricity	23.4%	11.8%
Coal	0.4%	3.5%
Not stated	9.1%	5.0%

Dublin City has the lowest share of oil heating of any local authority in the State, and nearly a quarter of households heat mainly with electricity. The suburban councils differ: CSO figures show oil at 12.3% of households in South Dublin, 14.3% in Fingal and 9.5% in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, so an oil boiler is more likely in older detached houses on the county fringe.

Gas safety: the RGI rule

Any work on a natural gas or LPG installation in an Irish home must, by law, be carried out by a Registered Gas Installer (RGI). The register used to be called RGII (Registered Gas Installers of Ireland); it is now run by Safe Energy Ireland on behalf of the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU), which appoints it as the Gas Safety Supervisory Body. When the job is finished, the RGI must give you a Declaration of Conformance certificate (also called a completion certificate), which records that the work is safe and to standard. You can look an installer up on the RGI scheme’s website before you book; see checking an RGI and the completion paperwork.

In a Dublin apartment the boiler may be in a small utility cupboard, and the flue route can be limited by the building. Ask the installer to confirm the flue position before you order a boiler, and read carbon monoxide alarms and boiler safety if the boiler is inside the living space.

District heating in Dublin

Dublin is where Ireland’s district heating is starting. HeatWorks, owned by South Dublin County Council, runs the Tallaght District Heating Scheme, which has operated since 2023 using waste heat from a data centre to serve council offices and the TU Dublin Tallaght campus. Dublin City Council’s larger Dublin District Heating Project plans to pipe heat from the Poolbeg waste-to-energy plant to up to 50,000 homes and buildings in the Docklands. The Irish Times reported on 11 September 2026 that the council has published plans with work beginning in 2027 and first customers in 2027–28. Recently built apartments on the former Irish Glass Bottle site are due to connect first. In Poolbeg, Ringsend or the Docklands, ask your management company about connection plans before replacing a communal boiler.

What the council can do

The council administers the Housing Aid for Older People Grant for people aged 66 and over living in poor housing conditions. It can pay to repair or replace central heating, up to €10,700 (100% of costs) where household income is up to €37,500, with lower rates up to an income of €75,000. Since 1 January 2025 it cannot buy a new oil or gas boiler, but it can repair an existing one or pay for electric or biomass heating.

You apply to Dublin City Council (or South Dublin, Fingal or Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, depending on where you live), not to SEAI, and it is worth including a report from a heating contractor describing the condition of the existing system, which Citizens Information says should accompany a heating application.

SEAI grants for Dublin homes

SEAI pays up to €12,500 towards a heat pump system in a house (€9,500 in an apartment): up to €6,500 for the heat pump, up to €2,000 for new radiators or underfloor heating where needed, and a €4,000 Renewable Heat Bonus for replacing an oil or gas boiler, solid fuel or storage heating. The home must have been built and occupied before 2021, and you need grant approval before work starts. The full table is in our Ireland boiler costs guide.

On 29 September 2026 the Government approved a new €2,000 boiler scrappage grant for homes built before 2021 that replace a fossil fuel heating system with a heat pump or other renewable heating. RTÉ reports that the scheme starts in the first quarter of 2027, while SEAI says homeowners with a heat pump grant application already in progress will receive the extra €2,000 automatically. That would take the maximum for a house to €14,500. There is still no SEAI grant for replacing a gas or oil boiler with another gas or oil boiler.

Owner-occupiers on a qualifying welfare payment in a home built before 2006 can apply to SEAI’s Warmer Homes Scheme for free upgrades after a survey; SEAI says the most common works are attic and wall insulation.

SEAI’s Renewable Heat Bonus covers swapping out a gas boiler as well as an oil one.

Typical prices

We have not found a price survey for this city alone, so these are national figures checked in September 2026: €2,300–€4,900 for a like-for-like gas boiler including VAT (Gasworks.ie), €2,900–€5,500 for a new oil boiler (Selectra), and a median €16,000–€17,000 for a heat pump in a house before grants (SEAI). See our Ireland boiler costs guide for the full table.

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We are a comparison and referral service, not a heating engineer. We do not guarantee a quote, a price or a response time. Anyone working on gas appliances in the UK must be on the Gas Safe Register; check the engineer's ID card before work starts.

How to choose an installer

Gas work: check the installer on the RGI register before they start, and ask for the Declaration of Conformance certificate when they finish.
Oil work: ask whether the technician is OFTEC-registered and what certificate or commissioning record they will leave.
Heat pumps and grants: use an SEAI-registered contractor or One Stop Shop, and do not start work until you have grant approval, because SEAI will not pay for work started before approval.
In an apartment, check with the management company about flue routes, communal systems and any district heating plans before you commit.

Our guide to comparing boiler quotes like for like has a fuller checklist, and Ireland’s heating controls grant covers the €700 controls grant.

Gas and heating installers in Dublin

These businesses appear in public business listings for Dublin, and each has its own website describing boiler or heating work. Several say on their websites that they are RGI registered; check the register yourself before you book. We have not checked their work, prices, registrations or insurance, and they have not paid to appear.