Mr. Liam Bergin:

On repurposing buildings, we are doing a good bit of work on embodied carbon at the moment. If a building is knocked down, there is a carbon consequence of that, as there is if a new one is built. We are looking at that in our city and county development plans. Some have gone through and they might not have had as much time to develop that notion. In this iteration of city and county development plans it is an emerging issue. I have no doubt it will be much further developed in the next cycle, which will be in four years for the majority of local authorities. It is something at which our planners, architects and housing sections are looking. I am not surprised it is absent from the ones that are about to expire but they will be much more conscious of that from now on because it is a major issue. It also makes a lot of practical sense, especially when working in a city. The effort involved in restoring a property can be much more community friendly rather than knocking a building where it may not or may not be necessary.

The question around outputs from fossil fuels is something on which we are very keen. I am thinking of Dublin but there are more examples of that now, particularly with data centres, as the Senator mentioned, and the outputs relating to them. Initially, it might have been hoped we would be looking at electricity into the carbon centres. It is only because the grid cannot manage it that we are looking at local fossil fuel solutions around that. My understanding, and obviously it will be specific to each planning application, is that fossil fuel will back up the electricity, that is, it will run off the grid insofar as possible but the fossil fuel is there for cases where there is blackout or a difficulty. The fossil fuel is complementary rather than the main source of power. Certainly, it is something on which we are focused.

The Senator will be familiar with the district heating schemes in Dublin city where we are looking at the waste to energy plant. That is a very significant scheme but south Dublin also has a district heating scheme from a data centre. That is very significant heat output. It is a negative, unfortunately, at the moment if it is using fossil fuel. Mostly it is using about 40% renewable energy. We are capturing the output. That output will give us a positive back into that. At the moment we are there or thereabouts but as the grid becomes more renewable, then it will be a pure benefit to the district heating scheme because it will be coming almost exclusively from renewable energy, but just with the backup. The Senator will understand why they would need a fossil fuel backup, especially when relying on solar or wind. From that perspective, it is something of which we are very conscious. It is being factored into any data centre getting planning permission now. A site will be being chosen that will allow us to capture those downstream benefits, in terms of hot water especially. They will be campuses rather than particular stand-alone data centres in the future to allow that.

On sea level rises, my colleague Mr. Duffy from Atlantic Seaboard South is more fully involved in looking at coastal erosion nationally. I agree, we have to stop making it worse by building houses close to the sea. That is an issue and the Office of Public Works is strongly involved with Mr. Duffy. He will cover that.

As the Senator says, Dublin City Council passed a motion on community wealth. Some colleagues in my own area of Dublin City Council are working on that now. It is being led by the finance section and is under the finance strategic policy committee, SPC. The work is at an early stage. The Senator is right we are paying particular attention to what has been achieved in the UK on this. It seems to have widespread support across Dublin City Council. I would say we are a little while away from any practical implementation on the ground. I understand that within 12 months it will be finding its way into the policies councillors will be adopting. A bit like the strategic development goals, SDGs, it will be flagged to reflect that perspective or ideology coming towards it. We are at the early stages but there seems to be widespread engagement across a number of departments in Dublin City Council and I think that it will be favourably received at council level.

On the materials used for buildings it would be a case of looking at the building regulations around that. They specify what materials can and should be used in development. We would be guided by that because any planning permission application we receive would be required to comply with building regulations, so it is a case of the technical specifications that are preferable. We have some things in our county development plan, and it is probably obvious, around the classes of development we would like to see. It would be easier to get planning permission for an A-rated house than for a B-rated house. Obviously, there are a lot of regulations around retrofitting too. It depends on whether a certain portion of the building fabric is being exceeded. I will say 51% but I cannot say exactly. If a house or building is being rehabilitated significantly, it is a requirement to bring it to a B2 standard. We would be guided by those regulations as well. Those national requirements would be reflected in our county development plans and other plans we would have locally.