Written answers

Tuesday, 6 May 2014

Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources

Energy Conservation

Photo of Seán KyneSeán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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126. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if his Department, in terms of energy efficiency, has developed an inventory of all public sector buildings; the steps being taken to encourage retrofitting of central government and local authority buildings; if there are specific targets to be met; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19956/14]

Photo of Pat RabbittePat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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My Department is responsible for co-ordinating the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NEEAP) which commits all organisations in the public sector to achieving a 33% energy savings target by 2020. Performance against this target is regularly monitored by my Department and I will be publishing an update to the NEEAP in the coming months. To achieve this target, my Department works with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) and the Office of Public Works (OPW) to develop, enhance and embed good energy management practices in the public sector. Action number 20 of the second Action Plan states: "We will work with public bodies to fulfil their exemplar role with respect to building energy efficiency."

As part of delivering that goal we have committed, inter alia, to: developing an inventory of public sector buildings; requiring that Display Energy Certificates are prominently displayed in all buildings that are occupied by public bodies over certain defined thresholds; and requiring that all new buildings occupied and owned by public bodies from December 2018 be nearly zero-energy buildings. I intend to underline and reinforce the Government's public sector energy efficiency ambitions by bringing forward a Public Sector Action Plan on Energy later this year. The Public Sector Action Plan on Energy will bring a greater impetus and strategic focus to ensure that the 2020 33% energy saving target is met.

The OPW manages the central government stock of buildings and they already have a register of the buildings they own and lease, which includes detailed energy usage information on about 250 of the larger buildings. This register includes central government buildings, some agencies and Garda stations. In fulfilment of our obligations under article 5 of the Energy Efficiency Directive, OPW calculated the equivalent annual savings that would be achieved if 3% of the floor area was retrofitted and proposed using the "alternative approach" to achieve our energy saving requirements under the Directive, which in practice is an expansion of their successful Optimising Power at Workcampaign, to targeted buildings in the wider public sector. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform allocated €9m over three years to the OPW in Budget 2013 to expand this campaign.

There is also an obligation on all public sector organisations to report annually on their energy consumption. SEAI maintains a database of the public sector’s energy usage and tracks each individual organisation’s progress towards the 33% target. Although initially focussed on the top 135 energy-using public bodies, in time the objective is to include all 440 public bodies. Public bodies insert their electrical and gas meter numbers and SEAI gets the annual consumption for them for these energy uses. The database contains 40,000 meter numbers and is growing. Each public body receives an annual scorecard to show their progress. This database is being developed with linkages to the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) and will lead to better procurement of energy supplies for the public sector. A report on public sector energy consumption will be published later this year.

Under the Social Housing Investment Programme, funding is provided by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to local authorities for a wide range of measures aimed at improving the social housing stock. Over the course of 2011 and 2012, the Department of the Environment’s retrofitting programme focussed exclusively on the refurbishment of vacant properties with the objective of returning as many of these to productive use. Over that period, some €52.5 million was recouped to local authorities and some 4,774 properties were improved.

Phase 1 of the Energy Efficiency scheme (Fabric Upgrade-phase 1) commenced in June 2013 and targeted the improvement of insulation standards and overall energy performance across 30,000 social rented properties and continues in 2014. It is envisaged that all Phase 1 works will be completed in 2014 and funding drawn down by year end. In 2014, a new measure with funding of €15 million was announced which will be invested in bringing vacant and boarded-up local authority houses back into productive use. In this context, local authorities were recently advised that funding of up to €30,000 per dwelling will be provided for a suite of retrofitting works to bring vacant properties back to a high standard.

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