Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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Question 344: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the consequence for a landlord whose rental property gets a particularly low BER rating such as G; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18454/09]

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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The EU Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings, which was transposed into Irish law by the European Communities (Energy Performance of Buildings) Regulations 2006 - 2008, introduced a requirement for a Building Energy Rating (BER) system.

In the case of buildings offered for letting, the Regulations require a landlord to produce a copy of the BER certificate and advisory report in relation to the building to any person who expresses an interest in availing of the letting. The BER certificate rates the energy performance of the building on a scale from A to G with A-rated buildings being the most energy efficient and G the least efficient. There is no minimum energy rating which a building must achieve but failure to obtain a BER Certificate when required by the Regulations is an offence, which may lead to a prosecution and a fine not exceeding €5,000.00. The BER Certificate is accompanied by an advisory report outlining a number of improvements that might be made to improve the energy efficiency of the building but there is no obligation on the landlord to carry out any of the recommended improvements.

The BER certificate and advisory report serve to enable prospective tenants to take the energy performance of a building into account when making decisions in relation to lettings and to compare in a standard format the energy performance of a range of buildings available to them. In this way it is intended that the BER system will promote greater awareness of energy efficiency in the property market and encourage building owners to take cost effective steps to improve the energy rating, and hence the overall energy performance, of such buildings.