Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Question 251: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he has prepared regulations to ensure that central and local government purchases of wood products are both certified and sustainable in view of the revised programme for Government commitment to green public procurement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29087/10]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Directives 2004/17/EC and 2004/18/EC, which were transposed into Irish law by regulations made by the Minister for Finance, allow for environmental and social criteria and conditions to be integrated into public procurement procedures. Such criteria and conditions may, therefore, be included in the selection of technical specifications and award criteria, and in contract performance clauses.

Accordingly, my Department's publication Quality Housing for Sustainable Communities–the best practice guidelines document for the Government's Housing Policy, Delivering Homes, Sustaining Communities – state that: "Materials such as timber used in construction should be obtained from sustainably managed sources".

At EU level, the current emphasis is on ensuring that all timber entering the EU comes from legal sources. To this end, a new EU Regulation will require timber traders operating in the EU for the first time to operate "due diligence" systems as a further barrier to trade in illegal timber. The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, who has responsibility in this area, is negotiating this Regulation on behalf of Ireland. The provisions of this Regulation, when adopted, will be reflected in the Green Public Procurement National Action Plan being prepared by my Department in co-operation with the National Procurement Service in the Office of Public Works.

The draft Green Public Procurement National Action Plan proposes to commit public authorities to verify that the timber they procure is both legal and sustainable. This may be demonstrated through any of the widely-recognised existing commercial certification systems, such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes (PEFC). Under the above-cited EU public procurement directives, any other appropriate form of proof and verification that timber is legal and sustainable must also be accepted.