Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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867. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will end direct State subsidies and grants in any form to developers and builders involved in building private speculative housing for profit; and the projected savings that this would bring. [27507/16]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The Better Energy Homes programme is administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland on behalf of my Department. It provides funding for insulation and heating system upgrades, helping to make homes more comfortable and cheaper to run, and reducing harmful emissions.  These grants are available to all owners of homes built before 2006.

The programme does not provide any funding in the form of grants or subsidies to developers and/or builders involved in private building developments.

I have no function in relation to the regulation of energy efficiency standards in new buildings. Energy performance standards in new buildings are subject to the Building Regulations (Part L Amendment) 2011 in accordance with the E.U.’s Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and are built to an extremely high energy performance standard.

Ireland’s energy performance standard for dwellings under Building Regulations (Part L Amendment) 2011 is recognised by the Global Building Performance Network as being among the leading statutory standards in the world.