Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Duffy and the committee for bringing forward this very important Private Members’ motion. In particular, Deputy Duffy has a lot of skin in the game as an architect and he has been very vocal on this issue for some time.

I want to begin by acknowledging that this report, Embodied Carbon in the Built Environment, is the result of excellent work by the committee and the many contributors to its content. Embodied carbon in construction materials makes a significant contribution to the lifetime carbon emissions of new buildings. These embodied carbon emissions are being addressed by the climate action plan, the review of the EU construction products regulation and the review of the energy performance of buildings directive. The issue of demolition waste is being addressed through the Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022.

Green public procurement is being addressed by a range of initiatives spearheaded by the Office of Government Procurement and the Environmental Protection Agency. The delivery of affordable and quality housing and addressing climate action are the two key challenges facing Government at this time. Through Housing for All and the climate action plan, the Government is committed to addressing these challenges.

The climate action plan is currently under review for publication in November 2023. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is working hard to achieve our shared goals of achieving net zero emissions no later than 2050, and a 51% reduction in emissions by the end of this decade. The Government has set sectoral responsibilities for the Ministers responsible for that sector. The plan recognises that climate change is a complex issue that requires transformative responses from every sector in society and that all measures collectively represent a coherent approach to dealing with the significant challenges ahead.

I will now turn to the recommendations contained in this report. The first recommendation addresses the global warming potential calculations and recommends that this measurement is adopted prior to the implementation date set out by the EU. The review of Regulation (EU) 305/2011, known as the construction products regulations, CPR, was confirmed by the European green deal in December 2019 and the circular economy action plan in March 2020. In parallel, the European Commission initiated discussion on an implementation plan for a future environmental life-cycle assessment framework for construction products, looking at the impacts on the wider environment that occur during the whole life cycle of a construction product.

The second recommendation recommends that the Government prioritises the preparatory work for measuring embodied carbon to ensure that once EU proposals are agreed, there will not be delays in transposing or amending the relevant domestic regulations.

My Department is currently attending European Council working party meetings on a revised construction products regulation. The intent of the revised CPR is to strengthen and modernise the rules for placing construction products on the market, reduce market barriers, address the sustainability performances of construction products and embrace the digital transformation. Ireland will be obliged to follow this harmonised procedure via harmonised technical specifications for construction products when a consensus of approach emerges. In that regard, it would be counter to harmonisation to develop national rules for matters covered by the Internal Market regulation.

In parallel, my Department, in partnership with the National Standards Authority of Ireland and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, is also working closely with the European Commission and other member states to plan for and organise future work to adapt the harmonised technical specifications. This process, known as the CPR acquisprocess, will also develop criteria to facilitate a uniform approach to the declaration of the environmental sustainability of construction products.

Under the climate action plan, the Office of Public Works, OPW, is putting in place a roadmap to promote greater use of lower-carbon building material alteratives in construction and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, is carrying out a research and development project to examine life cycle analysis and embedded energy in buildings to compare the use of sustainable materials.

In terms of timber and low-carbon cement, the next group of recommendations in the report, namely, recommendations 3 to 9, are focused on facilitating and encouraging the use of lower carbon materials, particularly timber and low-carbon cement. As regards timber, the Government recently announced its proposed investment of €1.3 billion in Irish forestry. The funding will be for the next forestry programme and represents the largest ever Government investment in tree planting. Coillte recently published a set of recommendations to promote the use of timber in construction. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is co-ordinating the implementation of these recommendations across Departments and my Department is engaging with this. The frameworks for the assessment of embodied carbon of construction materials is being considered by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment under the industry working group in climate action plan 2023.

Housing for All commits to the promotion and development of modern methods of construction, MMC, to deliver housing. Modern methods of construction encompass a broad and diverse range of innovative construction practices with significant potential to boost productivity and increase efficiency, such as avoiding waste in the construction sector. This includes timber frame construction, and my Department is engaging with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research and Science to increase the use of MMC, including timber frame, through the MMC leadership and integration group. The committee has recommended that part B of the building regulations be revised to provide clear guidance on timber frame construction. National Standards Authority of Ireland, NSAI, standard IS 440 is the Irish standard on timber frame construction published by the NSAI. This provides for timber frame construction to be a standardised construction system. Systems constructed to the IS 440 standard will comply with building regulations. Part B of the building regulations for fire safety provides for timber frame dwellings of up to four storeys or 10 m. Any alternative approaches to comply with the requirements of the building regulations must provide an equivalent level of safety which must be demonstrated by comparative analysis. Recent building control management system, BCMS, statistics show that 98% of new buildings are less than 10 m in height.

While the technical guidance document B provides guidance in practical terms for simple non-complex buildings, the route for innovative approaches is supported by the building regulations. As part of the ongoing part B review process, emerging fire safety risks were identified, such as taller buildings, electric vehicle battery technologies and so on. It was agreed that these issues require an evidence-based approach to inform technical advancement of the technical guidance document. To this end, it is proposed to establish a steering group on fire safety research to explore these issues further and to work in collaboration with fire authorities to help to develop appropriate solutions. This initiative has been welcomed by the fire authorities.

As regards cement, the climate action plan sets out the actions being undertaken across Departments with the aim of facilitating and promoting the development and use of alternative construction materials and techniques that reduce embodied carbon, using a performance-based approach. I note that the committee recommended engagement with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement, OGP, to prioritise the development of revised public procurement rules that encourage and emphasise the use of low-carbon construction materials. Public procurement rules already provide sufficient flexibility to incorporate sustainable construction materials. The technical specification is the appropriate avenue for ensuring that low-carbon materials are included in the works and these are drafted by the design team for issue with the tender documents. The choice of materials is a matter for the contracting authority, its designers and technical advisers. The public works contract already contains an obligation on the contractor to submit the technical characteristics of the materials it has chosen to ensure they meet those set out in the specification.

The next group of recommendations concern demolition waste and this falls under the policy remit of my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan. His Department has addressed some of these recommendations through the Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022. The Act provides for the introduction of a waste recovery levy on material sent for incineration or backfilling. The majority of construction and demolition waste by tonnage goes for backfilling. The Department intends to introduce the new levy by the end of 2023. The landfill levy already captures construction and demolition waste that is landfilled.

In respect of the reuse of construction by-products, the Act provides for the Minister to make regulations to streamline the Article 27 and Article 28 processes relating to by-products and end of waste, respectively. Work has commenced on the drafting of these regulations with a view to introducing them in the first half of next year. The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, is separately seeking to establish national end-of-waste or by-product criteria for certain categories of construction and demolition waste, namely, greenfield soil and stone, road planings and recycled aggregates. The establishment of national criteria will mean that operators will no longer need to apply individually to the agency in respect of materials that meet the relevant criteria. Decisions on these national criteria are targeted for 2023 but are subject to the outcome of consultations with industry and the European Commission, as well as any submissions received on foot of engagement with the EU technical regulation information system.

The climate action plans, the programme for Government, the waste action plan for a circular economy and the whole-of-government circular economy strategy all show how public procurement can be used strategically to shift the economy towards more sustainable consumption and production. To support better green public procurement, GPP, the EPA published updated GPP criteria for ten sectors along with GPP guidance for the public sector in September 2021. The online search tool will facilitate the use of these criteria in a user-friendly and efficient way. These initiatives will further support green procurement across the public sector.

As regards the national policy on architecture, achieving built environment sustainability is the overarching objective of the policy, through climate adaptation and mitigation, sustainable spatial planning and enhanced biodiversity, high-quality architectural and built environment research, design that meets sustainability criteria, selection of zero- or low-carbon materials and the maintenance and repurposing of existing structures and building elements for future generations, as a fundamental element of the circular economy.

From a national policy perspective, the national planning framework, NPF, provides an established means to implement and integrate climate change objectives, including adaptation, at local level and the transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient society. The NPF further states clearly that "in addition to legally binding targets agreed at EU level, it is a national objective for Ireland to transition to be a competitive low carbon, economy by the year 2050". Specifically, national policy objective 32 of the NPF targets the delivery of 550,000 additional households to 2040. One of the key priorities identified to achieve this includes building resilience, that is, re-use, adaptability and accessibility in our housing stock. In addition, national policy objective 35 also seeks to increase residential density in settlements through a range of measures including reductions in vacancy, reuse of existing buildings and infill development schemes, all of which underpin the role that existing building stock plays in the reduction of carbon emissions.

Legislative provisions are already in force to ensure that where a planning authority is considering a planning application under section 34 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, the planning authority is required under section 34(2) to consider the proper planning and sustainable development of the area, which includes, where relevant, the policy of the Government, the Minister or any other Minister. A similar provision is provided for the board under section 143 of the Act. In addition, there is also provision under section 34(4) to enable a planning authority, where it considers it appropriate, to attach conditions to a planning permission in respect of requirements for construction and demolition waste to be recovered or disposed of in such a manner and to such extent as may be specified by the planning authority. Where planning permission is granted, it is a matter for the planning authority or the board to attach the appropriate conditions on individual developments with regard to construction and demolition waste. A significant majority of local authorities, through their development plan policies, already require the submission of a construction and demolition waste management plan to accompany planning applications for developments of a certain scale and type. In that regard, the EPA has published guidance entitled Best Practice Guidelines on the Preparation of Waste Management Plans for Construction and Demolition Projects.

I look forward to the contributions of Deputies and I again welcome the motion.

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