Mr. Se?n Armstrong:

I will give the Chair the high-level briefing I received from the planning division. The committee may need to bring any further detailed questions to the planning division. On embodied carbon, as the Chair has correctly pointed out, there are several aspects to the issue. Key initiatives from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage include regulatory accounting for embodied carbon and the development of alternatives to the traditional technologies we have used. Under Housing for All, modern methods of construction are considered key in supporting the delivery of housing. They improve delivery times and have the potential to reduce costs while also enabling circularity and the use of embodied carbon in construction. Under Housing for All, a modern methods of construction leadership and integration group has been established. This is led by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and is supported by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. It co-ordinates activities to develop and support modern methods of construction.

Initiatives currently being established and established within the last 12 months include: the recently-launched ConstructInnovate technology centre at the University of Galway, a consortium of the University of Galway, University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork and the Irish Green Building Council; a national demonstration park for modern methods of construction at the National Construction Training Centre, Mount Lucas in County Offaly; the ongoing operation of the National Construction Training Centre; and the Build Digital Project to support digitisation in construction, which is led by the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. All of these initiatives that Government has put in place to support modern methods of construction will also support the development of off-site technologies, including technologies like timber frame construction.

In addition to building an ecosystem to support modern methods of construction, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is also going to build capacity in the system by putting in place a procurement programme for modern methods of construction for social housing. Some 30 sites with total potential for up to 1,500 dwellings have been identified and the Department is engaged in the procurement of modern methods of construction for these sites. We expect such procurement in respect of social or local authority housing to take place in the second half of this year, building on the previous existing frameworks for modern methods of construction. We are seeing the work we have done previously having some effect. The Irish Timber Frame Manufacturers Association said five years ago that timber frame housing made up 25% of all new housing being constructed. More recently, it has said it makes up 48%. Creating the infrastructure and ecosystem to support alternative means of construction will help develop technologies that reduce embodied carbon and facilitate circularity.

The second important measure to reduce embodied carbon is the accounting for embodied carbon. The energy performance of buildings directive, which is due to be adopted this summer and so is quite close to coming into operation, proposes that, from 1 January 2027, the global warming potential of buildings over 2,000 sq. m will have to be declared as part of their building energy rating, BER, certificate.