Written answers

Tuesday, 22 January 2019

Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government

Building Energy Rating Compliance

Photo of Eoin Ó BroinEoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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691. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 253 of 16 January 2019, the percentage of new buildings that have an A2 energy rating as required by the nearly zero energy building standard requirements; the percentage of public buildings owned and leased by the State that are fully compliant with the standard requirements as of the end of 2018; the mechanism by which compliance with the building standards and EU legal requirements is monitored; and his views on whether the State is compliant with the standard requirements. [2934/19]

Photo of Damien EnglishDamien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Under the current building regulations, a typical dwelling is built to an A3 Building Energy Standard (BER). Currently, based on CSO statistics, 98% of all new dwellings are built to an A3 rated BER standard.

The Nearly Zero Energy Building (NZEB) performance for new dwellings will be typically equivalent to a BER of A2.

The draft regulations and accompanying technical guidance to implement this have now completed public consultation and the regulations are expected to be signed into law shortly.  Accordingly the A2 performance requirement is not currently in place. Transitional arrangements will apply when these regulations are implemented. The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive requires all new buildings to be NZEB by 31 December 2020 and all new buildings owned and occupied by public authorities to be NZEB after 31 December 2018.

COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION (EU) 2016/1318 of 29 July 2016, on guidelines for the promotion of nearly zero-energy buildings and best practices to ensure that, by 2020, all new buildings are nearly zero-energy buildings, advises the following:  “Experience from the construction sector shows that the timing of the end of construction or completion of a building might be uncertain and may suffer delays. Member States would need to factor in the period of validity of building permits, the length of construction and completion of building works”. This recommendation is available at the following link;

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With regards to new buildings owned and occupied by public authorities, in December 2016 my Department issued a letter to all public service bodies advising them of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive requirement for all new buildings owned and occupied by public authorities to achieve NZEB performance after 31 December 2018.  It was accompanied by specifications and guidelines on how this could be achieved in practice, and to apply to all buildings owned and occupied by public authorities commencing design from 1 January 2017. A workshop was held with approximately 200 representatives of the public sector in January 2017 to review these specifications and they were then made available on the website of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).

The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive requires that new Buildings owned and occupied by public authorities are NZEB. Normally it is not expected that a leased building will be owned by a public authority but the final decision on this will rest with the Public Authority.

The implementation of the NZEB requirement in public buildings is the responsibility of the relevant bodies and at this early stage, data is not available on the percentage of NZEB in place in the public sector. However, apart from dwellings, it should be noted that all other buildings, public and private, which commence construction after 1 Jan 2019 must be NZEB under Part L of the Building Regulations and compliance in this regard is monitored and enforced under Building Control Regulations. It is planned to introduce NZEB for dwellings in the coming months.

Under the Building Control Acts 1990 to 2014, primary responsibility for compliance of works with the requirements of the Building Regulations, rests with the owners, designers and builders of buildings. Enforcement of the Building Regulations is a matter for the 31 local building control authorities, who have extensive powers of inspection and enforcement under the Acts and who are independent in the use of their statutory powers.  This applies to all buildings, including those owned and occupied by public authorities. 

Having regard to the above, I am satisfied regarding the State's compliance with relevant requirements and the associated guidance of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. 

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