Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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645. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the steps his Department is taking to increase efficiency in public sector buildings; the funding he is dedicating to same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32897/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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Ireland has a national energy efficiency target of 20% by 2020. The public sector with a critical leadership role to play has a more ambitious 33% energy efficiency target in the same period. Very significant public sector efficiency 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 CO2 emissions mitigated by the public sector in 2015 alone.

The first Public Sector Energy Efficiency Strategy was developed by my Department and published on my Departments website in January of this year. It introduces new structures and enhanced measures to support the public sector achieve the 33% target, including:

- A new governance structure to ensure leadership on energy efficiency in the public sector, with Energy Performance Officers (EPOs) at a senior level in Government departments taking responsibility for the management of energy efficiency outcomes in their group of public sector bodies.

- A process supported by SEAI and OPW to facilitate public sector bodies and EPOs overseeing their energy management and performance to develop and progress a central project pipeline to achieve further energy efficiencies;

- A provision of €3 million in 2017 from my Department to support SEAI and OPW in piloting the delivery of renovation projects to central government buildings to deliver enhanced energy efficiency.

- Clarity on the retention of savings achieved by public sector bodies from energy efficiency measures they successfully implement.

Besides the existing supports already available to the public sector through the SEAI's Public Sector Programme and the OPW's Optimising Power at Work initiative, €2 million in funding has been allocated this year to a pilot programme between the SEAI and Department of Education and Skills, to fund replicable, pathfinder deep renovation projects in schools. This will involve the delivery of advice and capital retrofits. Outcomes from the initial schools will inform wider implementation in the school sector.