Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the opportunity to highlight the fact that the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has applied for a further delay in implementing the EU Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings and the negative impact this will have on consumers, house buyers and, of course, the environment.

To some this might seem to be a technical matter that will not have a major impact on their lives. However, every person buying a house from 1 January 2007, and who has to spend the next 30 to 40 years paying a mortgage on it, will be adversely affected by the Minister's action. For the next two years approximately, builders will not have to provide energy performance efficiency certificates for the houses they build. Therefore house buyers will lose out on two counts. They will need to obtain an energy certificate if they decide to sell or rent the house, which will involve extra cost. However, the big issue is that a purchaser will not know the energy efficiency standard of the house he or she is buying or what it complies with. Substantial remedial work may have to be done to raise the standards of homes if people wish to sell them in the future. In this scenario the big losers are the house buyers and the environment and the winners are those in the building industry, whose pockets will be lined.

I believe pressure from the building industry is the main reason for this delay. I have been told, for example, that the software is not ready. However, that is just a smokescreen and the real reason is that builders do not want it. The purpose is to facilitate a small group of very large builders. Of course it is not the first time this has happened. In 1997 a memorandum from his adviser to the then Minister for the Environment stated that the Department should revise Part L of the building regulations in 1998 or 1999 rather than waiting until 2002-3. The memorandum states:

The next leap in building standard insulation will probably involve making it difficult for hollow block construction, used widely in the Dublin area, to survive. This has implications for manufacturers of hollow blocks and builders etc.

Nothing happened until the regulations were revised in 2003. In the meantime in excess of 250,000 houses were built with an energy efficiency rating approximately 35% below standard. The winners were the hollow block manufacturers and builders and the losers were the 250,000 families who bought those houses. That was a scandal, but it is even more scandalous that once again house buyers are being held to ransom. The environment will suffer and the building industry will clean up.

This Minister is spending millions of euro telling consumers how to conserve energy, yet his action in this matter will cost house buyers millions in remedial work in the future.

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