John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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The European Communities (Energy Performance of Buildings) Regulations 2006 – 2008 transposed the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive into Irish law. Article 8 of the Regulations requires a public body, in relation to a large building occupied by it on or after 1 January 2009, to secure and display a valid display energy certificate (DEC) which must be updated and renewed each year. A large building is defined as having a total useful floor area in excess of 1,000m2.

Compliance with all statutory obligations, including DEC requirements is, first and foremost, the responsibility of the administrative head of each public body. Public bodies have been notified of their statutory obligation to obtain DECs in respect of large buildings by Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI) which has been designated as the Issuing Authority under the Regulations and is responsible for the day to day administration of the DEC scheme.

Under the DEC scheme, buildings are assessed by appropriately qualified assessors who have registered with SEI as DEC assessors. Having regard to a building's actual energy consumption in the preceding 12 months, a rating scale of A to G applies, with A-rated buildings being most energy efficient and G-rated buildings least efficient. No minimum energy rating is specified but it is anticipated that public bodies will take steps to improve a building's performance over time, particularly where potential for cost effective improvements exists.

I understand from SEI that the number of buildings required to have a DEC is estimated to be of the order of 3,000. In addition, public bodies may voluntarily apply for DECs in respect of buildings which have a useful floor area of less than 1000m2 or which are otherwise exempted from DEC requirements by Article 3 of the Regulations. Some 1,300 valid DECs were in place on 22 February, 2010.