Dr. Josephina Lindblom:

I thank the Deputy. I recognise her discussion from elsewhere as well. The fact is we have focused for a long time on one part of the building, that is, the use phase of the building. Ireland is not alone there. In addition, when we look at the EU policy we have something called the energy performance of buildings directive and that is so far only looking at the use phase, though we are now changing that. We also have had for quite some time the waste framework directive that was referred to previously as well. However, there has not been any real thought as to the more holistic view, that is, the life cycle thinking and how that also has a direct impact on our climate targets. That was newly introduced a number of years ago but now this is changing and, as I said, in the Commission we are now taking several steps at the building level but also at the construction product level, which goes into the building to build it. We should, therefore, be much more aware of how we can assess these with respect to carbon.

There was not data before. A main reason this has not been done before is it was considered complex. Life cycle thinking is not straightforward. It is easy to understand the concept of an energy-efficient building but it is more complicated, or more complex at least, to understand what whole-life carbon is and how do I know and how do I assess it, etc.

That is why we have been working for quite some time now, together with the sector, to develop this common language in Level(s), the tool I mentioned before, so we have a number of indicators we agree on and a method of how to use that. As we have it we can, as of last year, include this kind of thinking in different building-related policies based on Level(s). The Commission started doing this last year. We see, as I said, how a number of member states - not many but several - are going ahead and starting to use this, with a higher level of ambition than what the Commission currently has, to develop this more quickly in their own legislation. Exactly how they do that and what structure they are using I cannot say but I can of course help the committee get in contact with those who are working on this.