Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 346: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the progress her Department has made in achieving this 33% target of energy efficiency in the public sector; if energy use in buildings under the responsibility of her Department is being monitored; if so, the person by whom it is monitored; the recent trends; if buildings under the responsibility of her Department are being retrofitted to improve energy efficiency; if there are capital budgets for energy efficiency measures in her Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13122/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Office of Public Works is responsible for the provision and maintenance of government office accommodation. They have installed Energy Saving Lighting (using passive infra-red fittings) in my Department's Athlone offices, the 9 Regional Offices and in new office accommodation in Athlone. OPW have been asked to investigate the suitability of installing these fittings in the existing offices in Dublin and Tullamore. Long life CFL lamps (energy efficient lighting) are used throughout my Department's offices where light fittings allow. My Department is committed to energy efficiency and is involved in the collaborative purchase of electricity, in conjunction with other government departments, aimed at reducing expenditure on electricity and to progress government commitments to increase the amount of energy used from renewable sources.

With respect to energy programmes that would compliment environmental work currently taking place under the green flags initiative for the past nine years my Department has been using a process called the DART approach (Design, Awareness, Research, and Technology) to develop sustainable and energy efficiency in educational buildings. The policy is driven by technical guidance documents, informed by building unit professional and technical staff, external partnerships and updated by continued energy research and development.

Rather than develop a unique focus on energy design my Department has taken a more holistic approach and have developed their technical guidance on energy efficiency in school designs as an integral part of the suite of technical guidance documents. These guidelines encourage the design team to take a complete design team approach from project conception.

The incorporation of low energy design has been done on a hybrid basis by maximising natural resources and utilising technologies. This involves focusing on areas such as natural ventilation, passive solar design, day lighting and reducing infiltration, enhanced insulation, lighting and heating controls and water efficiency.

The focus to date on sustainability in schools has been to reduce the energy demand in schools. This has proven quite successful with modern day schools typically using three times less energy than schools built ten years ago and also using less than half the energy than what is termed as good international practice for schools.