Francis Noel Duffy (Dublin South West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We have come very far since the Green Party sustainable energy legislation brought in standards for new builds through the Partel regulation, which has brought more people out of the fuel poverty trap than any other policy. We now have some of the best standards in the world for eliminating fossil fuel use to heat our domestic buildings, but the construction sector is still one of the highest emitters of CO2. While this carbon is embodied in construction materials, it is emitted through excavation, production, manufacture, transport and their end-of-life disposal. In the European context we are well behind the curve, as many countries have mandated their state bodies to procure materials using life-cycle assessment practices, where materials have environmental product declarations, EPDs, or environmental cost indicators, ECIs, which assist designers to procure buildings in a way that reduces embodied carbon. This is separate from NZEB carbon emissions.

This type of procurement practice is enshrined in the EU green public procurement directive, which was published in 2004. Since then, we have gone through two economic cycles, yet 16 years later we have not implemented this policy that is designed to reduce CO2 emissions. I have, gratefully, been briefed by the Department, which appears to be unaware of these sustainable procurement practices that are widespread in the EU and have the intention of reducing embodied carbon.

Will the Minister of State explain why the Department has been unable to implement the green public procurement policy 16 years after its inception, given the positive environmental, social and economic benefits it would bring?

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