Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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201. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the way in which public bodies that are commencing design for new buildings for projects in receipt of exchequer funding in excess of €10 million in the case of non-residential buildings, or in excess of €60 million in the case of residential buildings, should produce or procure a validated Whole Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions assessment from 1 September 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [68120/25]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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This government is committed to the public sector leading by example in reducing emissions. To encourage the decarbonisation of the cement and wider construction sector in Ireland, my Department published procurement guidance for public bodies last year. This sends a signal to the market that we require a reduction in the embodied carbon of publicly supported construction projects, and in particular the procurement of cement and concrete, for projects commencing design from 1st September 2024.

This guidance requires public bodies to use best practice project design to reduce embodied carbon and procure concretes with lower carbon clinker replacements. Public bodies will also stop procuring high carbon CEM1 cements except where technically essential, and will seek disclosure of the carbon content in the cement and concretes procured.

In addition, as the deputy has referred to, large construction projects, under specific conditions, should now produce a Whole Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions assessment. This came into effect on 1st September 2025 and is a key aspect of this procurement guidance. This advises that projects in receipt of exchequer funding that are commencing design for new buildings, under the thresholds noted, to produce or procure a Whole Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions assessment. This assessment is to be done in accordance with technical guidance provided by the SEAI. It is also consistent with the approach set out under the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive.

The SEAI has published the first version of their Life-Cycle Global Warming Potential calculation workbook and it is available on their website for use by public bodes and industry more broadly. This draft workbook and methodology will be updated to include product specific data and project specific scenarios in the future. The workbook allows assessors to calculate the Life-Cycle Global Warming Potential for buildings in accordance with the calculation methodology. The assessment is based on carbon factors from Ireland’s National embodied carbon database of building materials and default scenarios. Lifecycle assessment will become common place throughout the construction sector, and is already used by many private developers.

I would urge the wider construction sector, and especially those seeking to deliver public projects, to familiarise themselves and follow the guidance we have published, and to use the SEAI’s methodology and workbook. The guidance for public bodies published on the website of the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, and officials will be happy to answer any queries on its implementation. Similarly, SEAI will be happy to support the use of the published methodology for Life-Cycle Global Warming Potential assessment.