Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party)
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1957. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the special measures her Department is taking to reduce energy usage in the scenario in which members of the public are being asked to do the same. [20299/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department is undertaking a number of measures to ensure energy conservation in our offices and in our own homes.

My Department’s internal Green, Energy and Organisational (GEO) Committee oversees a number of initiatives to ensure energy conservation and environmental sustainability, including the implementation of our Resource Efficiency Action Plan and our participation in the Optimising Power at Work initiative.  The committee also actively engages with our staff to advise on how to encourage energy efficiency, both in the office and in the home working environment.

In furtherance of the Public Sector Energy Efficiency Strategy, my Department achieved an overall increase in energy efficiency of 37.8% by 2022. While this was undoubtedly driven to an extent by increased remote working, significant progress was nevertheless achieved through the work undertaken by the GEO Committee and the actions of our staff in progressing the energy efficiency and conservation agenda.