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

There are so many more issues I probably could talk about but I will keep it tight.

I thank the Members for their contributions and the Minister of State and the Department for listening. It is much appreciated.

I am grateful for this debate. I have been waiting a few years to push this agenda. I acknowledge, as the Minister of State was saying, the considerable work that is ongoing in decarbonising Ireland and the construction sector but there are some areas where we need to push a little harder.

There is a consensus, I believe, amongst the Members that we have little time to bring about radical change to protect our environment. The climate action plan commits Ireland to legally-binding targets to reach a climate neutral economy no later than 2050 and a reduction in emissions of 51% by 2030 by introducing sectoral ceilings. If we are serious about reaching that target, this report clearly advises the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on how we address embodied carbon in our construction sector through measurement and targets which will move us beyond the stage of merely talking about it. We have spent too long talking about it.

The timeframe the Department is working to is 2027. In my opinion, this needs to change. Both Mr. Pat Barry of the Irish Green Building Council and Mr. Ciarán O'Connor, Office of Public Works, OPW, State architect, concurred in our committee briefings that measurement can begin in 2023.

It is a simple enough process. I myself am practising it. I am working on a building where we are doing it. It is not that hard.

What we are simply asking is that Ireland catches up with other EU countries in adopting embodied carbon measurement and targets in our construction sector which will reduce embodied carbon emissions, assisting our climate change targets. Further to this, the Department must reform Part B of the building regulations to allow the use of timber as a structural element, as other jurisdictions are doing all over the world. We are so far behind the curve it is scary.

The global expert advice is we must start measurement of embodied carbon now and not wait until 2027 to begin, as it will take time to implement, to train and to bring our construction sector to that point, including the professionals, the teachers and the people building it. We have no time to waste. I hope we can move speedily in that direction.

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