Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 366 is also in my name. The Minister of State's response to the amendments is deeply disappointing and frustrating. It speaks to an approach to this issue that does not seem to understand the significance of ensuring that there is, in the planning legislation and, in particular, with respect to the housing strategies in the development plan, an absolute requirement for the Government to ensure that those strategies, in this instance and in the context of all other aspects of plan-making, take real action to require that the issue of embodied carbon is at the centre of these plans. We mentioned the Irish Green Building Council and the event at which we all spoke. A number of us, including me, Deputy Duffy and others, are ambassadors for the Irish Green Building Council and are happy to be so. The council did two significant things at that event. First, it launched a manifesto . I will read from a short section of that. It directly challenges the contention made previously by the Ministers of State, Deputies O'Donnell and Noonan, that embodied carbon is not a planning matter but a building control matter. In my view and in that of the Irish Green Building Council, it is both. One of their core policy objectives in the manifesto is to ensure that all new homes built in Ireland are truly sustainable. The manifesto states:

When new homes are built, they must not only be highly energy efficient [which we all agree with], but they must also be well located and built in a sustainable manner to address both operational and embodied carbon emissions and to reduce transport related emissions. This would ensure new homes are cheaper to run, improve people’s quality of life, and contribute to better use of scarce financial and human resources.

In the context of how this will be achieved, the manifesto states:

Review planning and building regulations, so that they better support the decarbonisation of the built environment and fully reflect Ireland’s climate objectives. Besides planning, specific areas to consider include [technical guidance document] B to reflect international research and developments in mass timber construction, and [technical guidance document] G to integrate water efficiency requirements for sanitary ware.

During the question-and-answer session at that event, the planning Bill was a significant issue of concern. The Irish Green Building Council asked us for an update and wanted to know to what extent, if any, the Bill was addressing issues of embodied carbon through planning. There were questions from the floor relating to that issue as well. If it is left to the building control and technical guidance documents, it is a slow process. As we know, technical guidance document B is currently not likely to recommend any significant changes with respect to timber-based products above 10 m. This is the Bill to make provision in that regard.

In the section to which amendment No. 366 relates, the imperative of having the issue of addressing whole life emissions in housing strategies is fundamental. First, that is because those housing strategies in particular will include the elements of housing delivery, which the State is funding, either through the direct delivery of social and affordable housing or through the purchase of Part V social and affordable housing, cost rental, etc. It is also about how they frame those strategies with respect to private sector delivery. Much of this is also about sending signals to industry. If we are moving on this path, industry needs to know where we are going and putting them into strategies is vital. I again make the comparison with what we used to be told when we were doing plans and strategies, namely, that they were tenure blind and that we had to focus on the planning elements. This is the same argument. We had to win that argument before. Thankfully, new plans and strategies are increasingly not tenure blind. However, they also have to not be embodied carbon blind too. Amendment No. 366 is a reasonable proposition in the context of an issue of such profound importance to our built environment.

One of the slides the Irish Green Building Council displayed at the event last week was based on research from carbon and climate experts in UCD. They looked at where our carbon emissions are right now. As I said earlier when the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien was here, emissions from embodied carbon in the built environment are the fourth highest. The experts to whom I refer then mapped out what was likely to happen over the lifetime of the national development plan, which sits underneath the national planning framework and which is one of the matters to which these amendments relate. They said that if we meet targets for renewable energy with respect to agriculture and public transport but do not tackle this issue of embodied whole-life carbon monitoring and reduction, then the volume of carbon or greenhouse gas emissions directly from the built environment will grow to become one of, if not the, highest. We have an opportunity in this Bill to name it and to place obligations on our planning authorities as well as the State and all other agencies through the planning process to have some visibility on this. For the life of me I cannot understand why it is not here at all. I am keen to hear more about the Minister of State's refusal to accept the logic of amendment No. 366. I will comment on some of the other amendments in this group after that.