Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

First, it is worth noting that timber is not only not a modern method of construction. In fact, it is really oldest method of construction. Buildings were made of timber before even stone or concrete. Hundreds of years ago, the buildings and houses in Dublin city were constructed out of timber. We sometimes hear it referred to as some sort of modern or novel use but it is not.

As the Irish Green Building Council showed last week, the trajectory we are on is such that if carbon limits in our building sector and built environment are not addressed over the coming years as other sectors decrease their emissions, the building industry is going to start taking up those emissions. Overall as a country, therefore, our emissions are not going to fall as building expands, as we build more homes and as everything in the national development plan is done. Other sectors are going to be making sacrifices and innovations and doing their bit while, at the same time, the building sector, if this is not addressed, is going to eat that up. That means we will have no chance as a country of meeting our emission reduction targets that are legally binding and for which we will face fines as a result of not meeting. Stating this might not kick in until 1 January 2030 is alarming. It needs to be done now.

There is a fundamental difference here in that the Minister and the Department seem to be of the view this is solely a building standards and control issue and not a planning issue, whereas we are strongly of the view this is also a planning issue. I will quote a document from the Irish Green Building Council. I have made this point previously but I do not think it has landed. The council stated in respect of the Bill that the initial findings of the viable homes project indicate that greenfield housing developments outside towns and cities can contribute up to 30% more embodied carbon per home than equivalent infill developments that use existing infrastructure. It went on to state the Bill should support planning bodies in encouraging the more efficient use of infrastructure as a way to better address carbon emissions.

As I said earlier, the work being done by the viable homes project from Construct Innovate shows this very much is a planning issue. While we can reduce embodied carbon and whole-life carbon through building standards, materials and products used, we can also address it through planning and the overall design and layout of, for example, new housing developments and it has done work on that. That is very important. We have to address it from a materials and building standards point of view but also from a planning point of view, and it is really serious if there is not an acknowledgement that it needs to be both. We do not have a hope of making the progress we need to make if there is not an understanding it needs to be tackled in both directions. The planning Bill is absolutely a relevant item of legislation to address the issue of embodied carbon and carbon limits in our building structures.