Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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444. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if there is a national carbon control strategy for all the buildings in the State portfolio. [2612/14]

Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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445. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if there is a monitoring system for the carbon control strategy for all buildings in the State portfolio. [2613/14]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions No. 444 and 445 together.

The Government is committed to minimising greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide emissions, from building stock in State ownership. In 2012, I published, in tandem with my colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Green Tenders, the national action plan on green public procurement. Green Tenders notifies public authorities both of their existing statutory obligations in terms of the environmental impacts of their procurement activities, and of how they can continually improve on their performance.

Green Tendersis available to download on my Department’s website, . The following extracts are particularly relevant:

“The Building Energy Rating (BER) methodology should be used to assess new buildings. A BER, which is effectively an energy label, is required at the point of sale or rental of a building. In addition, for public buildings, a further energy rating is documented in an annual Display Energy Certificate (DEC) which shows the actual energy consumed in the building compared to a benchmark on a scale from A1 to G. The DEC is intended to encourage public authorities to adopt environmentally responsible and efficient use of energy in buildings. They will be used to monitor on-going energy use and assess the effect of renovation works and energy management initiatives.

Since January 2009, public bodies occupying buildings over 1,000m² are obliged to exhibit a DEC, in a prominent place, clearly visible to the public. Regulation 15(1) of the European Communities (Energy End-use Efficiency and Energy Services) Regulations 2009 (S.I. No. 542/2009) requires public bodies to only purchase or lease buildings with a BER of B3 or higher (from 1 January 2012) and A3 or higher (from 1 January 2015), unless specified exemptions are invoked. In addition, the European Communities (Renewable Energy) Regulations 2011 require public bodies to fulfil an exemplary role (in the context of Directive 2009/28/EC on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources) when constructing or renovating public buildings after December 31st, 2011.”

In terms of mitigating carbon emissions arising from buildings in State ownership, it is expected that energy efficiency measures and the use of renewable energy will play a key role. Policy development and implementation in relation to energy efficiency and renewable energy are matters for my colleague, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. The Office of Public Works also has relevant functions in relation to ownership, management and efficiency of State buildings.