Mr. Seán Armstrong:

We must have one group deciding what the standard for assessing performance is. I have to go through the timeline because the Deputy asked what we are doing and I must explain. The regulation was being published and the horizontal working group is working to define the standards. The schedule for the group to define the standards for measuring the embodied carbon is quarter 2. In parallel with that, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is leading a task force made up of the Departments of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and Environment, Climate and Communications along with SEAI. It is identifying the standards that need to be updated. A framework must then be put in place. SEAI has been assigned lead responsibility for the development of that framework but it is already developed at European level. What we need are these environmental certifications, which the Commission has committed to developing the standards for. In its most recent proposal, the Commission also proposed that an EU database be established. It is important that we work in parallel with the Commission. If we decide to adopt certificates that are not in line with the construction products regulation, we will be asking industry to certify to a standard that is not necessarily the European standard and will develop a lot of certificates and build a very sophisticated system on a foundation that is not the foundation we need in a year's time. It is a complicated area. The EU is a critical path item but there is a task force working on it. It is meeting this evening and we would probably have been at that meeting working on it today but-----