Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 121: To ask the Minister for Finance the number of building inspectors employed by the Office of Public Works to carry out inspection works according to the requirements of the EU regulation for a building energy rating system. [24410/08]

Martin Mansergh (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)
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Article 7(3) of the Energy Performance Building Directive requires that a Building Energy Rating (BER) shall be prominently displayed in existing large public service buildings, over 1,000m2. The timeframe as per the 'Action Plan for Implementation of the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive in Ireland' for this requirement is January 2009. It is intended that an Operational Rating system will be used for public sector buildings, i.e. based on actual energy consumption. To date there is no agreed calculation methodology for the Operational Rating System in Ireland. The Office of Public Works is currently assessing a number of systems for calculation of the BER's for the buildings that will require labels in its portfolio (approximately 250 in total).

Articles 8 and 9 of the directive require that large boiler and air conditioning systems be regularly inspected. The Office of Public Works engages specialist companies to carry out planned maintenance and inspection, at regular intervals, of all large boiler and air conditioning systems in each building. This ensures that each system performs at its optimum level of energy efficiency.