Pippa Hackett (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I too extend the sympathies of my Green Party colleagues to the friends and family of Vicky Phelan. She was a once-in-a-generation advocate for change. May she rest in peace.

Here in Ireland, the vast majority of homes and buildings are made from concrete and steel. We have yet to embrace timber construction in the way many of our near neighbours and European partners have. This is a huge opportunity for us. Last week at COP27, Climate TRACE, a global not-for-profit organisation, released a huge bank of data listing the top known sources of greenhouse gas emitters across the globe. The data for Ireland made for some eye-watering headlines and reinforce the urgent need for us to rethink every aspect of our lives in order to reduce emissions. On the top-ten list of known emitters in Ireland, there was one road network, one oil refinery, one gas field, three airports and - something a lot of people may not be aware of - four cement plants. Many of us do not normally think of cement when we think of greenhouse gas emissions. We tend to think more of cars and planes, energy production and agriculture, but there is an entire industry in the built environment that we do not tend to think about in the same way as other industries in the climate change battle.

If we are serious about climate action, we need to look at our built environment and remove whatever barriers exist to using timber in construction where and when we can. Timber may never be a total replacement for cement but, in many cases, it can be the sustainable alternative. Some simple statistics speak for themselves. Producing 1 tonne of cement releases 0.6 of a tonne of CO2 and producing 1 tonne of steel releases 1.85 tonnes of CO2, whereas producing 1 tonne of wood actually absorbs about 0.75 tonnes of CO2.

Using timber in construction is not unproven territory. There are many countries leading the change across Europe, not only in building homes and commercial buildings with timber, but in using it to construct ground-breaking tall buildings, once thought impossible to build with anything but steel and cement. In Scotland, for example, home building is now dominated by timber construction, with about 80% of homes being timber frame.In Ireland, the figure is closer to 20%. As the House knows, we are big producers of timber and at present export over 70% of it. We have seen some innovative use of timber in Ireland, most notably in Avondale in County Wicklow, where Coillte has used Irish timber almost exclusively in the construction of its pavilion and treetop walk.

We now need to move beyond innovation and into the mainstream. It can and must be done, and we must now all work together to rapidly increase the use of timber across the construction sector. Through the education of our architects, engineers and planners, the skills of our construction workers, planning laws and our own attitude in government, we must encourage and assist those who want to build with timber to do so by offering assistance across all levels of the building process. We have to do more work with the general public. We must convince them that timber homes are as warm, if not more so, and as solid and safe as those constructed with cement. We have to do all we can in the coming months and years to reduce the emissions profile of our built environment. Timber can help us do just that.