Written answers

Thursday, 5 March 2020

Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government

EU Regulations

Photo of Eoin Ó BroinEoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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1241. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of the implementation of the NZEB regulations. [3490/20]

Photo of Damien EnglishDamien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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The European Union (Energy Performance of Buildings) 2019 regulations (NZEB) were signed on 29 April 2019.  These regulations improve the energy and carbon emissions performance of new dwellings by 70% over 2005 building regulations provisions.

The new NZEB regulations apply to new dwellings which commence construction after 1 November 2019, subject to a one year transition arrangement.

Previously 98% of all new dwellings were built to an A3 rated BER standard.  In general, a typical new NZEB dwelling will achieve a BER of A2.

NZEB for non-residential buildings was introduced into the Building Regulations in December 2017. This specifies NZEB performance requirements for new non-residential buildings. These new performance requirements improve the energy and carbon emissions performance in the order of 60% and introduce mandatory renewables on all new non-residential buildings. These regulations apply to works to new buildings which commence after 1 January 2019 subject to a one year transition.

The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive sets requirements at an EU level for Member States to improve the energy performance of buildings and to make an important contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.  Article 9(1) of the Directive requires Member States to ensure that by 31 December 2020, all new buildings are nearly zero-energy buildings.

The Directive defines a Nearly Zero Energy Building (NZEB) as a building that has a very high energy performance and that the nearly zero or very low amount of energy required should be covered to a very significant extent by energy from renewable sources, including energy from renewable sources produced on-site or nearby. This definition was incorporated into the Building Regulations in January 2017.

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