Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It is a question as much as anything else. Maybe I missed the explanation. Why is it a building control standard and not a planning one? I do not get that. I believe concrete accounts for about 8% of global emissions. If it was a country, it would be the third biggest emitter of CO2 after the United States and China. I do not understand how it is a building control issue to decide on materials. Surely, it is very much a planning and development issue to say that, in doing our development plan, we want to reduce the amount of concrete because of the damage it is doing to the environment and we will look more favourably on planning and development that is less damaging to the environment and that uses materials which, throughout their life cycle, do less damage to the environment. I may be missing something, but why would that not be a legitimate aspiration in doing a development plan?