Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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466. To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide a timeline for the development of his Department's specific climate change targets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49570/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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In 2009 the Government set a national target for Ireland to improve energy efficiency by 20% by 2020. At the same time, a more challenging efficiency target of 33% was set for the public sector to demonstrate leadership on energy efficiency.

The 20% improvement in energy efficiency by the public sector towards its target of 33% by 2020, has been achieved based largely on low-cost behavioural change measures.

The Department of Health has been working with the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Energy, the SEAI and the OPW via the Optimising Power at Work Programme on energy efficiency measures.

In the most recent data available "Health" is shown as having achieved 17% savings to date and “not on track to achieve the target”. However, it should be noted that this relates to the Health Sector as a whole, and not just the Department. The HSE has been working to address energy usage, particularly in Acute Hospitals - which are among the biggest energy users in the Sector. To put this in context, one large-scale project could deliver significant savings that would achieve the target on behalf of the entire sector.

In relation to the Department, it has been participating in the OPW “Optimising Power at Work” scheme since 2007. This is the baseline year. Overall energy consumption in Hawkins House for the period 2017 v 2007 has shown an increase of 7.1%. This is primarily explained by a substantial increase in gas consumption over the year. A 33.3% increase on the base year was evident. This reflects the condition of Hawkins House and the adverse weather conditions over the period.

Electricity consumption continued to perform well, at the end of 2017 a saving of 26% was achieved.

The Department continued with a range of initiatives to improve energy performance including:

- Improvements from “turn off” initiative - with a particular focus on all PCs being shut down at 10pm nightly, if they have not already been shut down by the user.

- Monitoring of time clocks on mechanical and electrical systems.

- Monthly energy reporting.

- BMS (Building Maintenance System) Maintenance.

In July 2018, the Department moved to an A rated Building Energy Rating (BER) accommodation in Miesian Plaza and it is expected that this will have a positive impact on the target going forward. This should be most evident by the end of 2019 when the Department can compare full-year data in relevant categories.