Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Leader to arrange for the relevant Minister - I presume it is the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment in this instance but the Leader will identify the correct Minister - to come into the House to discuss the need to build more timber-framed buildings. We need more houses built from timber grown in Irish forests to help us reach our climate change targets. We grow trees faster than anywhere else and we need to put this timber to work in our built environment. Houses, apartments, offices and schools could all be built with timber. A modest residential extension could easily lock up 3,000 or 4,000 tonnes of carbon. Advances in science during the past ten years have made durable timber buildings possible and these could be at the heart of our national building programme. Timber is a material that absorbs rather than emits carbon. Our forests absorb 3.8 million tonnes of carbon each year. That is equivalent to emissions from 60% of the 2 million cars on Irish roads. The timber industry provides 12,000 jobs in rural Ireland. To put it simply, trees act like large vacuum cleaners in removing carbon dioxide.

The current regulations do not allow for timber-frame construction of office complexes, schools or larger and taller buildings, which is a pity. This matter merits a detailed examination as timber-frame construction could be very much part of a climate change agenda in addition to creating jobs.

It is estimated we need 250,000 new homes. According to an estimate released today, a large number of homes need to be built every day. The figure may have been 90.