Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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The Building Regulations 1997-2022 set out the legal requirements for the construction of new buildings (including houses), extensions to existing buildings as well as for material alterations and certain material changes of use to existing buildings. Their aim is to provide for the safety and welfare of people in and around buildings. The minimum performance requirements that a building must achieve are set out in the Second Schedule to the Building Regulations. Technical Guidance Documents (TGDs) are published to accompany each part of the Building Regulations indicating how the requirements of that part can be achieved in practice. TGD M (Access and Use), provides guidance on illuminance levels for access routes to provide for independently accessible means of approach to the accessible entrance(s) of a building and means of circulation around a building. The are no plans to amend the provisions in TGD M with respect to lighting.

Ireland's 4th National Biodiversity Action Plan (NBAP) 2023 2030 was published in January and sets out Ireland’s vision for biodiversity, namely that by 2050 “Biodiversity in Ireland is valued, conserved, restored and sustainably used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all people”. The Plan strives for a “whole of government, whole of society” approach to the governance and conservation of biodiversity. The aim is to ensure that every citizen, community, business, local authority, semi-state and state agency has an awareness of biodiversity and its importance, and of the implications of its loss, while also understanding how they can act to address the biodiversity emergency as part of a renewed national effort to “act for nature”.

The 4th NBAP recognises the opportunities to deliver for biodiversity in the assessment of new planning applications and in the adoption of best-practice principles for urban design. The Plan outlines a number of actions aimed at safeguarding biodiversity in new developments, including that all public and private sector bodies move towards no net loss of biodiversity through planning, strategies and mitigation measures. The Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2023 places the NBAP on a statutory footing, requiring listed public bodies to integrate biodiversity into their plans, policies and programmes, and to report on progress.