Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 26: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the carbon footprint of each of the agencies under the remit of his Department for 2006; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15476/07]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 33: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the steps he is taking to minimise the carbon footprint of agencies under the remit of his Department; the carbon auditing that has been undertaken by agencies under the remit of his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15460/07]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 26 and 33 together.

Agencies under the remit of my Department are conscious of the need to achieve a high level of energy efficiency. Although there is no formal policy in place in relation to energy efficiency in most of the agencies, a number have undertaken efficiency surveys and carbon footprint audits to ensure efficiency measures are met.

A number of buildings occupied by agencies are leased and therefore the agencies would have no direct control in the efficiency measures applied at the time these buildings were originally fitted out: However, newer premises either leased or bought will have stipulated sustainable energy efficiency measures such as optimising heating and lighting controls and water saving measures in their fit out requirements. Waste recycling is also standard practice throughout all buildings occupied by the agencies. Staff are encouraged to video or call conference rather than travel to official meetings, and wherever feasible to use public transport.

The recently published National Climate Change strategy 2007-2012 sets out measures to be adopted by the Civil and Public Sector to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Theses include a requirement that each public sector body adopt greenhouse gas reduction targets, and measure and report progress on achieving these targets in their annual reports.