Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. We know that we do not have an awful lot of time to waste in terms of reaching our emissions targets. If we are waiting for the EU, through the energy performance of buildings directive and construction products regulation, by the time that is actually agreed and transposed into Irish legislation we will have probably already missed our 2030 targets. What we want to see is an urgency from the Department. We did not get that when it appeared before the Oireachtas climate committee. The Department certainly did not seem to think it was urgent. One of the things we are calling for is that the State lead by example. There clearly is a cultural bias in industry towards steel and concrete but if the State is using its public procurement methods to encourage the use of timber-based and new building technolgies for any public buildings or public housing, that is how we will set out very clearly to the sector that this is the direction of travel. I urge that we cannot wait for the EU to have agreement on this. We need to act now to stay within our 2030 targets.