Noel Rock (Dublin North West, Fine Gael)
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1121. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if the Government has participated in an energy efficiency audit on buildings owned by the State in an effort to save money on energy bills; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13243/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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Ireland has a national energy efficiency target of 20% by 2020.  The public sector has a critical leadership role to play on energy efficiency working towards a more ambitious 33% energy efficiency target in the same period.  Very significant public sector gains have already been made with a 21% improvement in energy efficiency achieved by the end of 2015.  This equates to €154 million in avoided energy spend and 548,000 tonnes of emissions mitigated in 2015 alone. 

To drive the achievement of the 33% target I have recently published the first Public Sector Energy Efficiency Strategy.  Central to the Strategy is the implementation of structured energy management. 

Energy audits have long been recognised as a key tool in energy management. The Strategy reiterates the requirement on public sector bodies to undertake energy auditing in line with EU and Irish legislation.  It sets a phased timetable for compliance based on the scale of energy spend.  Many public sector bodies are already participating in the “Optimising Power at Work” programme run by the OPW and energy audits are taking place as part of that initiative.  Good examples of the benefits of energy management are already being seen with a number of large public sector energy users already achieving the international ISO 50001 certification.